Posts by Wzrd1 2274 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2012
"Something you can fix with a big enough hammer, basically, rather than something that requires you to build a nano-scale fabrication system."
Funny movie, but in reality, nobody is hitting shit with a hammer in space.
Hammers only break things in a bigger way.
"At the very least, have a "No religion" rule past the ionosphere. It won't solve all issues, but it's a start."
I don't know. I seem to recall someone reading from the holly bauble from the Lunar surface, way back when I was a kid.
As for the rest, genetics makes me consider humanity a breed of Chimpanzee. I usually refer to them as Chumpanzees.
Of course, I'm better. I'm Homo Confusedus.
"How are the odds that they will kill each other sooner or later?"
That one is easy.
The first one to murder a crewmate gets to go streaking in interplanetary space or on the Martian surface, whichever is closest.
Brutal, but it's largely been effective throughout human history.
Now, for fist fights, well, sell tickets for crew entertainment.
(Trust me, microgravity fights would be not so much violence as a comedic event.)
"Rassillon and Omega created the Hand of Omega- a remote stellar manipulation tool- and used it to turn the star Gallifrey orbited into a black hole."
Sort of. It wasn't *their* star that was manipulated. It was a different star that was then transported back to Gallifrey.
Omega was trapped beneath the event horizon inside of a control center, where he was able to see into the singularity. In a gaffe, which was a theory at the time, the singularity opened into an antimatter universe and somehow Omega got turned magically into antimatter.
Which magically survived on Earth for a bit, where he should have been a briefly incandescent meter wide ball of plasma, before it expanded and erased much of Earth...
As for the New Who, that is arguable. They can have it that the Doctor got tired of having to recharge the TARDIS, so he harnessed a supernova or they can do whatever else they want to do.
That is one of the nice things about being writers and producers. ;)
"Unless he is using the power of the planet to power his tardis."
According to Doctor Who mythos, his people created an artificial black hole, which was then confined under their capitol city (well shielded, of course). That is the energy source for every TARDIS and their entire civilization.
As each TARDIS had that same named black hole in it, one can only imagine some particle entanglement deal going on below the event horizon, but above the singularity proper.*
Well, save for one episode, where he held an entire supernova inside of the TARDIS...
*Yeah, I know. Entangled particles that have one partner experiencing the hellish conditions below the event horizon would have their entanglement broken-maybe. But, that takes time, which essentially ceases to exist beneath the event horizon. ;)
"The concept of now is based on your frame of reference."
True, but the time differential is so modest as to be unnoticeable until one is moving at 95%+ the velocity of light.
There would be some very mild clock drift, something that could impact crypto, but not something easily noticeable by our meat selves.
UTC *is* the way to go. It's a standard and such standards are really handy when it comes time to call back home.
Of course, it's also likely that local time would be used as well, hence dual time being used.
For day to day, local time. It's always nice to know when the sun is going down. ;)
For communications and reports, UTC.
Can't count on the bean counters at home knowing how to convert local time to their local time.
We've had about six x-ray events from the sun this past week.
That would put some suckage onto any trip to Mars!
But, good old oxygen is *really* good at blocking x-rays and gamma rays. Hence, the idea of water being used as a shield.
It's portable, can be potable, necessary for life and is also great for making fuel.
I'd go with a light field camera. Minimal focusing necessary.
Altitude clues would be provided by a wide lens, where the surrounding surface expands rapidly at lower altitudes.
Master how bees land on a level surface, the next hurdle would be how they land on a moving flower.
Master that and have 100% foolproof carrier landings too.
"Backwoods courts here in the US constantly make rulings that go against all reason. Those rulings are almost always overturned by higher bodies."
Ah, but you ignored the fascist trumpet being blown, "National Security", as security through obscurity works so well and rights should be eliminated as simple privileges based upon mere suspicion of anything by anyone.
And I'm not using hyperbole, fascism is alive and well and increasing in the US.
What appeal? It was an court procedure to collect evidence, which ignored all prior case law regarding search and seizure of private property.
Any appeal would be against any eventual verdict, assuming that the company doesn't tie it up by rescheduling repeatedly for a decade, which would render the case moot, as the programmer and his company would become bankrupt.
Meanwhile, the US Constitution's Bill of Rights swiftly becomes further undermined, becoming the Bill of Optionals, where the fifth amendment right against self-incrimination is now considered a privilege by the SCOTUS (in their own words on the SCOTUS blog).
World, welcome to your view, the United Fascist States of America. The land where rights are mere privileges and some actually advocate for summary execution.
I really should have retired to New Zealand when I retired from the US Army.
"Wombat poos are much easier to find, because they are cubic and therefore don't roll away."
Perhaps that is true (I've never investigated wombat scat and really don't feel inclined to do so), but unless wombats suddenly start eating nothing by eucalyptus leaves, the point is moot.
"Everyone and his aunt come up with a theory and if any of it really does have some truth in it, it has already disappeared into a mire of information that is impossible to make head or tail out of."
Well, if you owned a petroleum company, you'd be investing in misinformation by the supertanker load as well to protect your business and profit.
"Ain't exactly rocket science ... One wonders at the numpties who approved the wireless capability in the first place."
The reason is simple: To program and adjust the device. It beats the hell out of opening up a patient every time they have to adjust the heart rate/shock pattern.
"For Cheney the left side of the equation is far higher than the right side. For the average person, the right side is far larger than the left side."
Ignoring the living shit out of script kiddies, who do "evil" for the hell of it.
Well, the upside is, if a script kiddie shut down my father's pacer/defibrillator, they're well within small arms range and would join him.
My father has one that literally uses a form of bluetooth for telemetry. It can also be programmed via the same method, no coils needed today.
He has an telemetry unit on his bedstand to read the unit condition at vendor pre-determined intervals and report back the unit status.
"The advantage of phages that they co-evolve with the viruses they eat so it is more difficult for a virus to completely out-compete them."
Er, phages are a virus. They are a virus that exclusively predates upon bacteria.
Their replication is sufficiently inefficient enough to produce mutations faster than bacteria can typically adapt to.
"How about we just let our immune system work and only use antibiotics in life-threatening situations. Or does that cut to deep into the pockets of Big Pharma? We can't have that, of course!"
Ah, the "big pharma" bullshit.
Ignoring the hell out of assholes insisting that they be prescribed an antibiotic for a generic viral cold millions per times per cold season.
No, it's all physicians being the willing servants of the pharmaceutical industry.
"USSR continued research into phages long after WW2 and developed usable phage treatments which were used in the food industry."
Wasn't and isn't only the food industry. I recall hearing and seeing a program about customized phage lines available for order.
Send in your pathogenic bacteria, get the phage to treat the infection.
"Someone has been holding back research on these."
Erm, large investments in antibiotics, lack of interest in reinventing the wheel with phage research, which would, each germ line one by one, have to go through the regulatory wringer.
In short, totally different method of treatment, totally different technology, totally the same regulatory set of hurdles for each type of phage to be used as an antibiotic. Hence, there isn't suppression, only a lack of interest in the expense.
"And BTW that ability of bacteria to evolve defenses to all antibiotics would be practically impossible without the drug industry selling them to livestock (mostly chicken) farmers as "growth promoters," exposing lots of bacteria to sub lethal doses and allowing them to pass on their resistance through plasmids."
Which is why MRSA, VISA and VRSA all occur now in environments around hospitals, not farms. Right?
I guess we should've stopped hospitals from raising chickens to feed the nation!
Oh, we didn't let them start.
We'll not even go into the rarity of plasmid transfer, you failed on reality alone.
Because, MRSA, VISA and VRSA all are human transmitted, not transmitted by fowl or beast.
There is no secret law. The order is an order of the court, that order comes with a gag order.
Speak of the court order, be held in criminal contempt of court.
That means prison time, as long as the judge desires, as well as hefty fines that can make Bill Gates blanch, if the court so desires.
"If there really had been a need to promote PV technology, perhaps the government should have promoted its use in developing countries nearer to the equator."
Nations near the equator are far better served with thermal collectors, as those are far, far, far more efficient and the solar input is more than sufficient in a rather small footprint.
It's farther north that one ends up with PV, as one cannot as easily collect enough sunlight to generate enough heat for prime power generation.
That said, PV sucks at prime power generation at its current state of the art, compared to nearly every other form of electrical power generation. However, there are new technologies for PV that are promising.
"Each technique alone mass as a few percent in the real world, but adding them all together could really be impressive. Well done boffins, keep at it."
Agreed. Each new technique added to previous improvements can yield vast improvements, as well as new avenues previously never considered.
"The african continent, with it's occupants missing the Neanderthal genes, is decidedly non-peaceful and rather rife with various forms of agression, and has been as long as recorded history can prove."
Erm, pre-colonization, the African continent was far more peaceful than all of Europe in any time period you care to name. It wasn't until post-colonization that things got screwed up.
Don't confuse tribal warfare with what Europe repeatedly experienced.
One only ponders the many, many, many, many wars throughout Europe. Eight crusades, a few of which seemed to never make it to the intended destination...
"I also understand that the DNA differences which distinguish races are smaller than the DNA differences within a race. I'm not sure this % DNA comparison is turning out to be that useful."
True enough, it's more of a popular press thing.
Science tends to look more at what parts are different in what way, as well as how many parts of what chromosome is different/missing/additional, etc.
But, off the top of my head, I think that in common with grasses, we have a bit more than 50%. Many cellular mechanisms are the same across all species.
There are only so many ways to work with ATP, as one example. Or utilize sugar for food. Or maintain cellular respiration.
"They were different races, most likely:
homo sapiens sapiens (self-labelled)
homo sapiens *neanderthalensis"
Want to see taxonomists get into a bar fight? Ask them if it's Pan Sapiens or Homo Troglodytes. The fur will, figuratively, fly!
"People share 96% (or so) of DNA with bonobos, so everybody shares more with Neanderthals. I think what is meant that around 1 - 4% of DNA of people outside of Africa has similarities with Neanderthals which people in Africa lack. Several recent studies claim that the similarities stem from a shared ancestor, rather than hybridization. The alternative is that the similarities stem from a mixture of both."
As I recall, the molecular geneticists are still trying to piece that puzzle together.
"To a good first approximation, the definition of a species divide is that (fertile) interbreeding does not occur across the boundary."
True, but sub-species can interbreed.
Which really makes an interesting question: At what point of divergence from the common ancestor could Pan and Homo no longer interbreed? It's so uneven a process, it poses an interesting question from a genetics point of view.
"...and then there are those who evolved directly from reptiles into an entirely separate, cold-blooded, species; the most prominent examples being Mr Cameron and Me Osborne."
You missed the species.
Those who evolved directly from reptiles into an entirely separate, cold-blooded species are called politicians.
"While you are free to agree or disagree with Snowden's actions, the politics and the methods of most of the Wests Intelligence Apparatus, I find your willingness to throw away human life, regardless of their employment, a little distasteful."
The funny thing is, ask any combat veteran if they find the willingness to throw away human life distasteful, they'd all find it extremely distasteful.
Even the enemy.
We'd have been happier if they simply decided to quit and go home.
"Are you implying that Snowden should have said to himself : "I cannot stand this blanket surveillance state anymore, but everyone is doing it, so I'll just resign quietly and forget about the Constitution of my country" ?"
Is there not a US Congress? Is there not a US press, rather than a foreign press?
Did he approach any Congressional leader?
First question: Yes. Second question: Yes. Third question: No.
He didn't approach any domestic press either.
Sorry, he's off for his own publicity.
His sudden self-elevation from a SA to network spook only proves it.
But then, I have met the man when he was sent to help recover US government networks from a PRC attack.
He was a prima donna then, he still is.
Only, his songs are off key by a *lot* now.
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