sneakeypete

Wait, so something actually came of this protest?

Actually reminds me of transport tycoon. Defantly japan though... cars don't drive on the left in china.

If we ever have to change the orbit of an asteroid, doing so when its next to the earth is porbablhy unlikely situation. Its much more likely that we would attempt to adjust its orbit when it is furtherest from the sun, as there is a smaller velocity change required. We're getting plenty of practice at moving to asteroids aswell, for example with the dawn mission.

Christ, don't be worried about the rock. Its not going to crash into the earth. Simple as that. Its not. no "not likely", just "not". Its not going to have an effect on the earth either. Its mass is tiny, compared to any other force acting on the earth. Non event.

While i guess i have no way to say "oh well you should just stick with the UK" i do have to ask, if you split up for economic reasons... what's to stop someone then saying "well xx clan on the east coast used to be independent of the rest of the kingdom, our identity is being suppressed, and we're also being mooched off (oil), lets make our own country too!". and so on?

I did do some calculations based on it, and for a sunny place like Australia, the panels pay themselves back in 10 years (out of a lifetime of 20 years). So they're pretty much economical now if you have the space and location. (which we don't already have a solar hot water heater and a solar pool heater on our roof)

I have to admit i love how they are calling what is in all honesty a new pipeline an "extension". Otherwise, build the dam thing. Even if Texas was producing oil at the rate of its glory days, it probably wouldn't be enough (after all, way more people there now. Also, correct me if i am wrong but this is a crude oil pipeline is it not? doesn't matter what the local consumption of the oil is anyway if that is the case and it is efficient to ship processed fuel a fair sort of distance

Can see why its an issue. Lots of random self appointed groups "oh we need money for xx" Need to make sure that money is really being used for it.

You've got large predators in an area that doesn't get them, which are probably distressed. Your average local sheriffs department probably doesn't have the facility to stun them in a timely manner. The incident should never have happened, but i can't see how it could have been practically handled better.

Big mother of them all under the USA, and iraq? news to me, though i'd have to say it'd be awesome for humanity if it were true... However, that being said, current proven reserves, consumed at the current rate, would run out in about 67 years. That's an undeniable fact. The critical thing is how much more we discover in the future. That and how much the demand in developing countries grows.

I'd almost guarantee that someone has, though i don't have the time nor will to find the data at this point. Also, while ship based cargo is not "urgent", its also not "oh it'll get here when it gets here" either. Lead times in industry, food, etc, all require decently fast transit of the oceans. Thirdly... I'd not be convinced that a wind powered vessel would be as cheap to run as a oil powered one, particularly if it was to be as fast as the oil powered one. The extra crew alone would be a huge cost. By the same token however, i suppose it depends who's running the ship, and how little non CO2 pollutants you propose to let go into the atmosphere.

I really cannot see us becoming independent of hydrocarbon based fuel for propulsion in the next 50-100 years. The large scale of large ships makes alternatives such nuclear and coal possible (though coal has disadvantages in handling, and you'd need about twice as much to go just as far as oil), but for personal transportation energy density is everything, and its something that hydrocarbons excel at, being stable at room temperature and being easy to use. I imagine we'll probably start moving over to coal-to-liquid based fuels (methanol, ethanol, and some other interesting ones) and some organic ones (bio-ethanol, which is just what most people call ethanol right now anyway) once oil starts to become really scarce

Did you even read the article? Go read (or re read) it carefully now.

Won't deny the need for improvements here, but where is the money coming from again? well....

I honestly don't see the point in a station at the Lagrangian points. Firstly, they're no more stable for an object than at LEO as far as i know (you would still need to station keep), secondly they're much more difficult to get to... or more importantly, get back to earth from. Thirdly... there probably isn't much of a benefit being there than there would be just leaving from LEO anyway. I suppose you have maple syrup for breakfast every day, eh? (see, i can make stereotypical generalizations too!)

They've got Russian stuff by all accounts so it should actually fit. However, one has to realize that space is different to ground. even if the stations are 50km apart vertically, its not easy at all to move between them. Yes but its something they've never done, they've gotta start somewhere. and that somewhere sure as hell can't be to advanced otherwise stuff is bound to go wrong.

I think we're giving to much credit to ourselves to say that we could be causing earthquakes, but i've not studied it closely so I couldn't say either way.

Someone mentioned that they'd found plans relating to attacks on this date in Bin Ladens compound. I liken it to finding paperwork in a bank about money..

Seriously? "only" 8 years? Hell, sim city 4 was released 8 years ago (well, 8 years and a few months). Imagine not having a single day off, working all hours of the day every day, from when it came out to now... that is what you are suggesting.

I wouldn't even call it a group. Calling it a group is like calling say, everyone who supports a sports team as a group. Sure, they might all support the sports team, but it doesn't mean that they know eachother, cooridnate with eachother, and so on.

I dont' get it... isn't this law doing just that... banning the misuse? Doesn't say anywhere that (adults) cannot own or buy one. Just says you can't point it at other people and their stuff.

Took them to long to be retired really. In my opinion, while the program was sucessful in that it provided heavy lift capacity to orbit quite nicely, it did fail at doing so cheaply and easily, which was the entire purpose of the program. When you need to do a huge amount of safety checks on the returned components, you might as well just make new ones. It's the reason why the russian space program still uses the souyz craft. Its the reason why the proposed new american craft would have been of that type. and the new spacex craft, and the new chinese craft, etc.

My dad says: "Watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves." At risk if further dereailing this, but if you were really serious about saving money, why didn't you buy a small hatchback with comparable fuel economy to a prius? or even a second hand one? It might be less efficient and cost say, 1000 bucks more of fuel, but you'd save more than 10-20K on the purchase price. To try and rerail it: that's why i'm not a huge fan of the second hand car buyback schemes. While of course you have some old cars that are large and spit out noxious emissions like its going out of fashion, you also have old small cars that, even with 20 year old technology manage to get remarkable fuel economy due to the sheer fact that their small and light. Not only that, their cheap and affordable to lower income earners.

Lovely city mate!

Some power plantes are manageing to get to the 50% efficiency mark. Certainly more efficient than practically any other methods of power generation around the place. Of course, for some of those methods the source is practically limitless which negates the need for such high efficiency.