Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 14 Dec 2021 @ 1:17am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"...then how do you explain why NASA is building a infrared space telescope to detect just that? "
I said it wasn't a good solution - and it isn't. You need vast arrays of telescopes to pinpoint, scan and detect black body-objects the size of a mountain at a distance of multiple AU. NASA is as usual putting a good spin on getting one eye into orbit, but what we really need is coverage a few orders of magnitude better than that. And at that scale it really just means plastering the ground with multiple acres of arrays.
"Apparently NASA is defending us from killer asteroids now and it's not complaining that Starlink is interfering with that business. "
No, NASA is experimenting with possible methods of defending us from asteroids. They don't have a magic gun, an anti-asteroid missile, or Bruce Willis. They've got a theoretical plan they want to show proof-of-concept of. DART is a literal attempt to send a vehicle the size of a sedan with a warhead, trying to move a falling mountain
And even if DART works exactly as advertised it doesn't render an asteroid harmless. It attempts to push it slightly off course.
That'll help only if the asteroid is detected many years out and persistently bombarded with DART kinetics until its orbit goes from a hit to a very near miss.
If we only spot the asteroid, say, three years off today, all we can do is to wait until armageddon because we have nothing to deflect it with within that time.
"So yes, the researchers (astronomers) can suck it up as we dont need them to detect killer asteroids."
With every assertion you made to that effect being fantasy bullshit and hopes and prayers, no, all you've done there is to double down on showing everyone that you don't grok scale, astronomy, science, space or the concept of technology.
You...seriously need to go read up on why it has never been a good idea to trust the spin of the snake oil salesman whose money is invested in the product he's peddling becoming a market hit. And that, sadly, goes the same way for NASA whose public communications have been a desperate attempt to get the public and body politic interested enough to invest in space at the same scale they did back around the moon landings...
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 14 Dec 2021 @ 1:03am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"And it's a single researcher. And is this even from a paper published and peer-reviewed? If it says could, it also mean it could not."
Uh huh. I guess I'll accept the words of some internet rando over the fears of a credible expert in his field. Makes perfect sense.
"Now I may not be very good at language, but it's because I'm Deaf, not a moron."
Looks a bit like both. My condoleances on you being unable to deal with your personal issues in other ways than trying to troll online.
"Okay maybe your FUD scenario is not complete made-up but it still strongly smell like one to me."
With half a dozen extinction events pretty well studied in our pasts the concept that the human race could expire overnight because we decided to fill the sky with twinkling lights providing convenience rather than the most basic of required sensors isn't FUD. It's you settling on the slopes of Pompeii and calling the doomsayers looking at the active volcano hysterical for pointing out that the place you're living in has been under lava multiple times before.
"No logical person should take what this article or what you are saying seriously without hearing more. "
So what you're telling me is that you know nothing of astronomy or history but are inclined to make solid assertions about it anyway? Fair enough.
"So the poles are out, so what? There are other desolate places. There are no orbital telescopes that cant be designed to detect killer asteroids?"
Unless said asteroid is barrelling right down the focus of the satellites we do have, yes. Our current view of space around us is comparable to painting all the windows on your car black and keeping just a small pinhole uncovered. And from that is how you'll get all your info on what's outside.
The universe is a fscking big place and for us to discover the planetbuster about to kill us in time to do jack shit about it means we need a lot more.
"I'm going with the article talking about researchers which mean astronomers not scientists in general."
Ah, so just the guys trying to figure out how the universe works. Yeah, I'll go with Asimov here and note that his statements about the cult of american anti-intellectualism is still going strong.
"I throw you this: ad-hominem, you are not going to win by belittling me or my intelligence and so that my arguments can be just dismissed out of hand because of your assertion that I dont know jack."
Oh, you not knowing jack isn't why I'm belittling you. Ignorance is fixable. No, the reason I'm calling you a moron is because that's the appropriate term for someone who knows jack and refuses to learn while still insisting their opinion on that topic of which they know jack is somehow more relevant than that of those who do know jack about said topic.
THAT is why you're a moron. Not because you don't know. But because you refuse to fix that. The very wiki definition of dunning-kruger.
"I dont live in a fantasy world. I go with what I have read, unless you are saying what I have read is fantasy? That NASA/SpaceX have plan to build a base on the moon where science can be done there by people or robots that people will build within a decade or so?"
Yeah, that's fantasy. Within the century perhaps, but not within the decade. Or the next. And the reasons why this isn't happening is pretty clear;
1) No money. It'll - conservatively speaking - be a bigger project by far than the initial US space program. The likes of which hasn't been seen since the US stopped burning every resource into a space race against the USSR. NASA's current budget - or SpaceX - won't let them put cubesats on the moon.
2) The tech literally doesn't exist yet. There's a reason we can drop a rover on mars to the tune of 3 billion USD but we still don't have the tech to do the same for the moon at scale and at length. Can it be done? Sure. If the research was funded. But not anywhere within the decade.
"This is fantasy? It sounds like the space frontier is going to be broken though with all the talk of an orbital hotel for space tourism in the near future."
...the same way every prediction since the 60's has utterly failed this is also a pie-in-the-sky idea. We all thought that come 2001 we'd be travelling physically between planets and have space stations. And then we learned just what has to go into such exploration and governments and corporations worldwide cut funding.
It's a literal catch-22 issue. To have proper space exploration we need the ability to shift significant mass into orbit in cohesive amounts. That means a very big mass driver or a space elevator needs to be built first, unless the US decides to dust off the old theoretical plans for the Orion.
"Detecting killer asteroids from space or the moon or whatever is surely within the mandate for NASA and NASA can do it with SpaceX help, or is that thinking fantasy-like according to you? "
Yeah, it is. Looking for a planetbuster has a market issue - there's no profit in it. Thus SpaceX will always reserve every pound of payload to further its margins. Meaning the taxpayer will have to pay, in the end, multiple amounts more for each pound they push into orbit since, by normal market economics, SpaceX will want its margin - whereas NASA does it at cost.
Yet NASA doesn't have the budget either, meaning that they have to make ends meet.
"...still I dont see the need for government to step in to intervene to curtail orbital internet service providers and all I see from you or the article sounds like FUD crap."
People like you have pushed that exact bullshit about every issue where government failed to intercede to curb overly avaricious markets. Global warming was identical "FUD" twenty years ago.
And the hazards of the next yucatan event has been covered in metric tons of studies since the 60's.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 8:17am
Re: Re: Speech
"One day you guys should share the dictionary you refer to"
Mein Kampf, published 1925. Not everyone's choice of dictionary but given how many concepts Restless94110, Shel10 and Koby keep quoting from it I'd say that's where these people get the idea that someone throwing you out of their property for griefing ze jews...i mean, black people...would be an assault on their personal integrity and rights.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 8:14am
Re: Re: Re:If only he'd take
John Steele is, admittedly, on par with Hawley when it comes to being an outrageous asshole leveraging the most deplorable of people's motives as his mechanism of choice for grifting...
...But last I checked he's still in jail.
Damn, now I'm imagining Nunes chaining up the bars of a jail cell window to a a herd of cows trying to spring Steele...cue tumbleweeds and a sad harmocia in the background...
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 6:11am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"You don’t reach that by making threats at a podium: you do it by making ownership responsible. Something to be trained for and when you achieve the requirements to reach your right, something to be proud of. Something easily forfeited."
If only there was a party of personal responsibility these days. But what you've got is the choice between a right-wing party with corruption issues and an extreme right-wing party with fascism issues.
That needs to be addressed first. It may indeed be important to inventory the perishables, inspect the kitchen, and rearrange those deck chairs...but the long gaping hole beneath the waterline is probably what you need to fix first.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 6:00am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Totally without merit
"I Vern much do want a social safety. One far higher and more pre-funded than most (if not all) socialist nations. "
There's a compromise you need to find between socialism and capitalism in order to not tip over to either side. I think where core infrastructure and essential services are considered, privatization is a bad idea. At the same time leaving it all up to the government isn't good either - because just as the market will want to obtain profit without performance the state bureaucracy is difficult to audit.
"A complete and fair social base for all."
The Level Playing Field.
Not everyone may want to become a lawyer, doctor or engineer...but the barrier to college education should be something everyone can pass. Student loans need to be at a reasonable level, not something which can and does cripple your future. Mine are fairly high but roughly 80$ a month is not unaffordable amortization for a M. Sc. And that covers expected living cost and study literature, the college itself being free.
Health care around here costs, per visit, 15-20$ in administrative fees. Prescribed medicine is subsidized; if you hit an annual ceiling in medicine costs of ~250$ the state deals with the rest.
Dental is free until you're 23. After that it's more expensive than general health care but still partially subsidized.
Social security has been somewhat cored since one of our last administrations was lamentably a Reagan-fan but it's still better by far than in the US.
At the end of the day any society which can't fully accommodate Maslov's hierarchy of needs for each of its citizenry is a failed society. And the society which does will have a citizenry where there is no urgent need for large proportions of the people to make ends meet or earn respect and self-esteem by criminal means. That is the cornerstone how-to of building a safe society. If your society instead is a dog-eat-dog world then that's a society which breeds rabid wolves.
"Plenty of people work in retail by choice. Garbage haulers who enjoy their jobs. Etc. And that social base guarantees the person who wants to do something can go and do it. "
Here's the worst job conditions for Sweden, by example;
40 hour working week.
12,50 USD per hour. (minus ~30% tax)
25 days a year paid vacation.
90 days parental leave, gender-neutral.
That doesn't get you luxury but it gets you a base from which you can better yourself, improve, etc.
"Republicans fight socialism by looking at South America, Africa, Far Eastern Europe. Broken countries who say they are socialist and practice communism! "
Let me stop you right there; No country on the globe practices communism. Those countries all practice bureaucratic oligarchies (old USSR) or dictatorships - using visions of the "worker's utopia" as window dressing.
I'll show you a good example of communism.
Look at the computer you're writing on. The motherboard allocates all resources - from the PSU to the CPU, GPU and RAM, from all according to their ability, to each according to their needs as it were. THAT is communism. A system perfect in theory which will always fail in reality because, well, people simply aren't machines.
Karl Marx was a genius no doubt - Das Kapital is still a basic book of college economics, still considered one of the best breakdowns of capitalism - but he should have left it at analysis. Because a wizard of market studies he might have been but as a student of human flaws he was a failure.
"In American politics though the Reps have a point. The Dem elite are not looking for socialism: they (or most) seek communism. "
No. That's not a thing. There are indeed democrats who try to move towards a bureaucratic oligarchy - but those are the right-wing democrats who have more in common with the current GOP than they do with the left-most members of their own party. Realize that if you want to find a leftist democrat the extreme end is Bernie Sanders - who looks like a democratic socialist on the surface but who I'd peg a social democrat once the chips are down.
The problem the US has is not communism or left-leaning extremism. Take it from someone who grew up with that problem being an actual thing both a stone's throw to the east and with Rote Armee Fraktion terrorists to the south.
What you've got in the US is simple enough. I'd advise googling "Umberto Eco 14 common features of fascism". Generally speaking the more of these you hit the closer you are to dictionary-definition fascism.
You will find a few democrats hitting a number of these with a rare few center ringing all of them.
The current GOP hits every one. Every last one.
And one key note of fascism, as a self-defined italian dictator had it, was the merger of corporation and state. It's when the right wing leaves the playing field of economics and devolves into an autocracy. Same as all the pretend communist countries.
I like to think of the model of politics, when it comes to left and right, as a circle instead of a level plane. 12 o'clock would be social democracy. to the right, 3 o'clock, would be libertarianism. To the left, 9 o'clock, would be democratic socialism. 6 o'clock would be fascism and nazism both. They meet at the extreme end.
The democratic party as a whole is stuck on 2-4 o'clock on that model (except bernie who is on 9 or 12).
The GOP is around 4 or 5.
You've got two right-wing parties with one of them being extremist and the other simply riddled with corruption. Don't mistake that for a right vs left debate - that's the first lie too many americans are stuck in.
"Real, uncensored, fact. "
Exemplified; School visits to the city morgue or trauma clinic where a doctor can explain a few cases where trivial disputes or casual contempt of safety led to death or maiming.
"We need logical laws but also require logical enforcement!"
Good ideas, all. Two stumbling blocks, in the US, as I understand it;
1) Everyone needs a citizen id. Or it stumbles on a have/have-not issue (witness the problem with voter registration).
2) Law doesn't deal with perceived need. The laws can be as sensible as you like but it's still a "prohibition" problem.
A debate around socialism may be separate topic from one about gun control but really...the one can't take place without the other already having been held.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 3:19am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: consequences needed
"While Americans can be louder and more obviously deluded on some of these problems, you're kidding yourself if you think nobody around you on this side of the pond is vulnerable to the same things."
Idiots are everywhere. However, there's a massive difference between "5% of the population are morons" and "25% of the population are morons".
The UK in particular, however, is a bit weird in the regard that it, like the US, has a political system far more tolerant to the utterly inept and performers than is the norm in many other countries. Boris Johnson built his entire career around playing clown, for example. I blame first past the post here - it drastically lowers the bar of required public competency in the body politic.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 3:13am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Two problems
"This Is a matter of a court saying, no exceptions, a person can’t block someone else based on political opinion. "
No, it's a matter of the court saying government can't block someone else based on political opinion. That's actually 1A, right there. In the particular instance where Massie communicates as a congressman he is, in fact, no longer a person. He's government.
"Wonder what your opinion will be when a few sheet heads decide to follow some far left anti-white racist."
Please, lostin, blow that dog whistle just a bit harder, m'kay?
For the record, though, if a public official turns out to be a racist you've got bigger problems. Also, the KKK will declare someone like MLK racist because to them, him preaching equality, is racism against white people.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 3:00am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"It is the creative ability that is a sellable commodity."
...which of course is something corporations handling copyrights knows damn well which is why they work so hard and lobby so much to make the business reality one where the creative ability is locked in indentured serfdom or a slave contract (looking at you, Sony).
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 2:51am
Re: Re: Aww, 3 years stealing the work of others, down the Youtu
"Explain how reviewing anime/manga and giving drawing lessons is theft in any possible way."
That's just old Baghdad Bob. Even back ten years or so when his "Bobmail" persona or any of his sock puppets were trolling Torrentfreak, he really went the extra distance to demonstrate that he never believed in "principles".
With him it'll always be the biggest copyright stakeholder is always right.
He's just sycophantically beholden to the most deplorable actor in any topic...which I guess is why he branched out into defending the alt-right and the KKK over the BLM protests.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 2:09am
Re: Re: Japan IS dumb about copyright
"Stop a country from applying its own cultural norms because a foreigner got offended by them?"
I'd like to hold that if a country chokes it's own #MeToo movement over the fact that women making a ruckus about being abused is considered far more outrageous than women quietly being exploited and raped...then there is definitely a cause for strong words, at least.
Japans xenophobia is more ubiquitous and rooted far more systematically than the racism a black man might live through in the US...but it's more subtle. Rarely a risk for violence, just a great number of politely yet firmly closed doors. A muted yet persistent fear of the other, applied broadly to anyone not born japanese.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 2:03am
Re: Japan IS dumb about copyright
"Japan is racist. It’s a monoethnic block that voluntarily meets most of its own social needs."
It's more like xenophobic. Japanese culture has a real problem with everything which doesn't fit the accepted template. That they are still on the level where the #MeToo movement was sunk in that nation because the public was outraged over the unrepentant gall of women rocking the boat really says it all.
Yeah, the gaijin is suspect. You can't trust him to conform to societal rules, so be wary of him.
He might decide to eat your children, or worse, talk to you in a loud voice in a public place. Worse still, being seen talking to him might make others assume that you are going to start drawing attention to yourself. Better shut up and inconspicuously keep your distance.
The teen dying their hair/wearing their school uniform the wrong way? Obviously a delinquent who sleeps with anything that moves, does drugs, and steals everything not nailed down. Talking to him/her will smear you the same way.
Japan as a culture resembles nothing so much as that isolated clannish small town we read about in Stephen King novels. The one where everyone spends incredible effort to remain civil in any circumstance and no one says anything which might be grounds for conflict - until one spark too many flies and two stalwart pillars of the community, quiet for decades, decide to knife each other behind city hall.
It is changing, however. The younger generation, as always, is chafing at the societal leash. It's just slow and usually met with heavy enough public censure the pressure to conform breaks most young rebels into staid defenders of the status quo soon enough.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 1:46am
Re:
"On the other hand we all know it would end up being ridden hard & put away wet by the cartels and we'd end up with laws that make Japan's crazy look really balanced."
Well, yeah. I usually like to advocate copyright being excised from law completely and an author's work being shoved under trademark instead. That would solve so many problems.
But I'm pretty sure the only thing we can realistically hope for is to swing the axe and tell authors writing is a hobby, not a job.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 1:38am
Re: Re: Not a direct quote from out of the blue: 'That, no. Stop
"Why does Disney and similar corporate interests get to "grift" off of other people's works and nobody else can?"
One of two options;
1) Old Blue/Baghdad Bob/Bobmail is an ignorant moron who hasn't realized yet that almost every "creative" work in modern times is largely based on older stories. That every piece of music is a derivative because there really are just that many note sequences we can accept. And that describing reality isn't original.
2) It's irrelevant whether he knows or not because shilling for the most deplorable of people - like copyright conmen, Trump and the Proud Boys - gives him a boner.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 13 Dec 2021 @ 1:01am
Re: Re: Re:
"Maybe it is, indeed, time for the nukes to fly. I would like to reiterate, I am not a bloodthirsty war advocate, I am merely saying, that's your only way out."
Global genocide isn't the answer. If the nukes fly, we all die.
"Biden and future administrations sure as fuck ain't gonna get Southeast Asia back on THEIR sode in the forseeable future, or the rest of the world, EUROPE INCLUDED."
If the US manages to produce someone capable of reversing this trend it will be a democrat who's first horsewhipped his own party into ethical shape and then retired half of his own party and all of the current GOP to some remote island for being sociopathic asshats in proven bad faith visavi their citizenry.
"...if only because the EU fears Russia more than Xi."
Which is correct. China wants to be top dog and has millennia of history of treating their satellites well. Russia, otoh, are expansionist and don't have a very good record of contributing to the wealth and prosperity of their allies.
From both the EU and US perspective, opposing China in any material way means accepting that your own country will tank. The economy will collapse or slow, pension funds will start hemorrhaging. If you don't want your citizens to lose purchasing power and prosperity you'll need to make nice with China...at least until you've come up with a long-term plan of wresting yourself free off the self-inflicted yoke.
I'm really torn about this. On the one hand I abhor china's thin-skinned authoritarianism. On the other I have to admit that it was the shortsighted greed and ineptitude of our industry and political system which put us into this position in the first place. I'll blame China for its atrocities against it's dissidents. But I can't blame them for the monumental fail we have to own ourselves.
On the post: EU, US Start To Realize Letting Elon Musk Dictate Global Space Rules Might Not Be The Brightest Idea
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"...then how do you explain why NASA is building a infrared space telescope to detect just that? "
I said it wasn't a good solution - and it isn't. You need vast arrays of telescopes to pinpoint, scan and detect black body-objects the size of a mountain at a distance of multiple AU. NASA is as usual putting a good spin on getting one eye into orbit, but what we really need is coverage a few orders of magnitude better than that. And at that scale it really just means plastering the ground with multiple acres of arrays.
"Apparently NASA is defending us from killer asteroids now and it's not complaining that Starlink is interfering with that business. "
No, NASA is experimenting with possible methods of defending us from asteroids. They don't have a magic gun, an anti-asteroid missile, or Bruce Willis. They've got a theoretical plan they want to show proof-of-concept of. DART is a literal attempt to send a vehicle the size of a sedan with a warhead, trying to move a falling mountain
And even if DART works exactly as advertised it doesn't render an asteroid harmless. It attempts to push it slightly off course.
That'll help only if the asteroid is detected many years out and persistently bombarded with DART kinetics until its orbit goes from a hit to a very near miss.
If we only spot the asteroid, say, three years off today, all we can do is to wait until armageddon because we have nothing to deflect it with within that time.
"So yes, the researchers (astronomers) can suck it up as we dont need them to detect killer asteroids."
With every assertion you made to that effect being fantasy bullshit and hopes and prayers, no, all you've done there is to double down on showing everyone that you don't grok scale, astronomy, science, space or the concept of technology.
You...seriously need to go read up on why it has never been a good idea to trust the spin of the snake oil salesman whose money is invested in the product he's peddling becoming a market hit. And that, sadly, goes the same way for NASA whose public communications have been a desperate attempt to get the public and body politic interested enough to invest in space at the same scale they did back around the moon landings...
On the post: EU, US Start To Realize Letting Elon Musk Dictate Global Space Rules Might Not Be The Brightest Idea
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"And it's a single researcher. And is this even from a paper published and peer-reviewed? If it says could, it also mean it could not."
Uh huh. I guess I'll accept the words of some internet rando over the fears of a credible expert in his field. Makes perfect sense.
"Now I may not be very good at language, but it's because I'm Deaf, not a moron."
Looks a bit like both. My condoleances on you being unable to deal with your personal issues in other ways than trying to troll online.
"Okay maybe your FUD scenario is not complete made-up but it still strongly smell like one to me."
With half a dozen extinction events pretty well studied in our pasts the concept that the human race could expire overnight because we decided to fill the sky with twinkling lights providing convenience rather than the most basic of required sensors isn't FUD. It's you settling on the slopes of Pompeii and calling the doomsayers looking at the active volcano hysterical for pointing out that the place you're living in has been under lava multiple times before.
"No logical person should take what this article or what you are saying seriously without hearing more. "
So what you're telling me is that you know nothing of astronomy or history but are inclined to make solid assertions about it anyway? Fair enough.
"So the poles are out, so what? There are other desolate places. There are no orbital telescopes that cant be designed to detect killer asteroids?"
Unless said asteroid is barrelling right down the focus of the satellites we do have, yes. Our current view of space around us is comparable to painting all the windows on your car black and keeping just a small pinhole uncovered. And from that is how you'll get all your info on what's outside.
The universe is a fscking big place and for us to discover the planetbuster about to kill us in time to do jack shit about it means we need a lot more.
"I'm going with the article talking about researchers which mean astronomers not scientists in general."
Ah, so just the guys trying to figure out how the universe works. Yeah, I'll go with Asimov here and note that his statements about the cult of american anti-intellectualism is still going strong.
"I throw you this: ad-hominem, you are not going to win by belittling me or my intelligence and so that my arguments can be just dismissed out of hand because of your assertion that I dont know jack."
Oh, you not knowing jack isn't why I'm belittling you. Ignorance is fixable. No, the reason I'm calling you a moron is because that's the appropriate term for someone who knows jack and refuses to learn while still insisting their opinion on that topic of which they know jack is somehow more relevant than that of those who do know jack about said topic.
THAT is why you're a moron. Not because you don't know. But because you refuse to fix that. The very wiki definition of dunning-kruger.
"I dont live in a fantasy world. I go with what I have read, unless you are saying what I have read is fantasy? That NASA/SpaceX have plan to build a base on the moon where science can be done there by people or robots that people will build within a decade or so?"
Yeah, that's fantasy. Within the century perhaps, but not within the decade. Or the next. And the reasons why this isn't happening is pretty clear;
1) No money. It'll - conservatively speaking - be a bigger project by far than the initial US space program. The likes of which hasn't been seen since the US stopped burning every resource into a space race against the USSR. NASA's current budget - or SpaceX - won't let them put cubesats on the moon.
2) The tech literally doesn't exist yet. There's a reason we can drop a rover on mars to the tune of 3 billion USD but we still don't have the tech to do the same for the moon at scale and at length. Can it be done? Sure. If the research was funded. But not anywhere within the decade.
"This is fantasy? It sounds like the space frontier is going to be broken though with all the talk of an orbital hotel for space tourism in the near future."
...the same way every prediction since the 60's has utterly failed this is also a pie-in-the-sky idea. We all thought that come 2001 we'd be travelling physically between planets and have space stations. And then we learned just what has to go into such exploration and governments and corporations worldwide cut funding.
It's a literal catch-22 issue. To have proper space exploration we need the ability to shift significant mass into orbit in cohesive amounts. That means a very big mass driver or a space elevator needs to be built first, unless the US decides to dust off the old theoretical plans for the Orion.
"Detecting killer asteroids from space or the moon or whatever is surely within the mandate for NASA and NASA can do it with SpaceX help, or is that thinking fantasy-like according to you? "
Yeah, it is. Looking for a planetbuster has a market issue - there's no profit in it. Thus SpaceX will always reserve every pound of payload to further its margins. Meaning the taxpayer will have to pay, in the end, multiple amounts more for each pound they push into orbit since, by normal market economics, SpaceX will want its margin - whereas NASA does it at cost.
Yet NASA doesn't have the budget either, meaning that they have to make ends meet.
"...still I dont see the need for government to step in to intervene to curtail orbital internet service providers and all I see from you or the article sounds like FUD crap."
People like you have pushed that exact bullshit about every issue where government failed to intercede to curb overly avaricious markets. Global warming was identical "FUD" twenty years ago.
And the hazards of the next yucatan event has been covered in metric tons of studies since the 60's.
On the post: Devin Nunes Retires From Congress To Spend More Time Banning Satirical Cows From Trump's New Social Network
Re: Re: Speech
"One day you guys should share the dictionary you refer to"
Mein Kampf, published 1925. Not everyone's choice of dictionary but given how many concepts Restless94110, Shel10 and Koby keep quoting from it I'd say that's where these people get the idea that someone throwing you out of their property for griefing ze jews...i mean, black people...would be an assault on their personal integrity and rights.
On the post: Devin Nunes Retires From Congress To Spend More Time Banning Satirical Cows From Trump's New Social Network
Re: Re: Re:If only he'd take
John Steele is, admittedly, on par with Hawley when it comes to being an outrageous asshole leveraging the most deplorable of people's motives as his mechanism of choice for grifting...
...But last I checked he's still in jail.
Damn, now I'm imagining Nunes chaining up the bars of a jail cell window to a a herd of cows trying to spring Steele...cue tumbleweeds and a sad harmocia in the background...
On the post: Federal Court Dismisses Another Negligence Suit Against Online Gun Marketplace Armslist But Says Section 230 Doesn't Protect It
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"You don’t reach that by making threats at a podium: you do it by making ownership responsible. Something to be trained for and when you achieve the requirements to reach your right, something to be proud of. Something easily forfeited."
If only there was a party of personal responsibility these days. But what you've got is the choice between a right-wing party with corruption issues and an extreme right-wing party with fascism issues.
That needs to be addressed first. It may indeed be important to inventory the perishables, inspect the kitchen, and rearrange those deck chairs...but the long gaping hole beneath the waterline is probably what you need to fix first.
On the post: Federal Court Dismisses Another Negligence Suit Against Online Gun Marketplace Armslist But Says Section 230 Doesn't Protect It
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Totally without merit
"I Vern much do want a social safety. One far higher and more pre-funded than most (if not all) socialist nations. "
There's a compromise you need to find between socialism and capitalism in order to not tip over to either side. I think where core infrastructure and essential services are considered, privatization is a bad idea. At the same time leaving it all up to the government isn't good either - because just as the market will want to obtain profit without performance the state bureaucracy is difficult to audit.
"A complete and fair social base for all."
The Level Playing Field.
Not everyone may want to become a lawyer, doctor or engineer...but the barrier to college education should be something everyone can pass. Student loans need to be at a reasonable level, not something which can and does cripple your future. Mine are fairly high but roughly 80$ a month is not unaffordable amortization for a M. Sc. And that covers expected living cost and study literature, the college itself being free.
Health care around here costs, per visit, 15-20$ in administrative fees. Prescribed medicine is subsidized; if you hit an annual ceiling in medicine costs of ~250$ the state deals with the rest.
Dental is free until you're 23. After that it's more expensive than general health care but still partially subsidized.
Social security has been somewhat cored since one of our last administrations was lamentably a Reagan-fan but it's still better by far than in the US.
At the end of the day any society which can't fully accommodate Maslov's hierarchy of needs for each of its citizenry is a failed society. And the society which does will have a citizenry where there is no urgent need for large proportions of the people to make ends meet or earn respect and self-esteem by criminal means. That is the cornerstone how-to of building a safe society. If your society instead is a dog-eat-dog world then that's a society which breeds rabid wolves.
"Plenty of people work in retail by choice. Garbage haulers who enjoy their jobs. Etc. And that social base guarantees the person who wants to do something can go and do it. "
Here's the worst job conditions for Sweden, by example;
40 hour working week.
12,50 USD per hour. (minus ~30% tax)
25 days a year paid vacation.
90 days parental leave, gender-neutral.
That doesn't get you luxury but it gets you a base from which you can better yourself, improve, etc.
"Republicans fight socialism by looking at South America, Africa, Far Eastern Europe. Broken countries who say they are socialist and practice communism! "
Let me stop you right there; No country on the globe practices communism. Those countries all practice bureaucratic oligarchies (old USSR) or dictatorships - using visions of the "worker's utopia" as window dressing.
I'll show you a good example of communism.
Look at the computer you're writing on. The motherboard allocates all resources - from the PSU to the CPU, GPU and RAM, from all according to their ability, to each according to their needs as it were. THAT is communism. A system perfect in theory which will always fail in reality because, well, people simply aren't machines.
Karl Marx was a genius no doubt - Das Kapital is still a basic book of college economics, still considered one of the best breakdowns of capitalism - but he should have left it at analysis. Because a wizard of market studies he might have been but as a student of human flaws he was a failure.
"In American politics though the Reps have a point. The Dem elite are not looking for socialism: they (or most) seek communism. "
No. That's not a thing. There are indeed democrats who try to move towards a bureaucratic oligarchy - but those are the right-wing democrats who have more in common with the current GOP than they do with the left-most members of their own party. Realize that if you want to find a leftist democrat the extreme end is Bernie Sanders - who looks like a democratic socialist on the surface but who I'd peg a social democrat once the chips are down.
The problem the US has is not communism or left-leaning extremism. Take it from someone who grew up with that problem being an actual thing both a stone's throw to the east and with Rote Armee Fraktion terrorists to the south.
What you've got in the US is simple enough. I'd advise googling "Umberto Eco 14 common features of fascism". Generally speaking the more of these you hit the closer you are to dictionary-definition fascism.
You will find a few democrats hitting a number of these with a rare few center ringing all of them.
The current GOP hits every one. Every last one.
And one key note of fascism, as a self-defined italian dictator had it, was the merger of corporation and state. It's when the right wing leaves the playing field of economics and devolves into an autocracy. Same as all the pretend communist countries.
I like to think of the model of politics, when it comes to left and right, as a circle instead of a level plane. 12 o'clock would be social democracy. to the right, 3 o'clock, would be libertarianism. To the left, 9 o'clock, would be democratic socialism. 6 o'clock would be fascism and nazism both. They meet at the extreme end.
The democratic party as a whole is stuck on 2-4 o'clock on that model (except bernie who is on 9 or 12).
The GOP is around 4 or 5.
You've got two right-wing parties with one of them being extremist and the other simply riddled with corruption. Don't mistake that for a right vs left debate - that's the first lie too many americans are stuck in.
"Real, uncensored, fact. "
Exemplified; School visits to the city morgue or trauma clinic where a doctor can explain a few cases where trivial disputes or casual contempt of safety led to death or maiming.
"We need logical laws but also require logical enforcement!"
Good ideas, all. Two stumbling blocks, in the US, as I understand it;
1) Everyone needs a citizen id. Or it stumbles on a have/have-not issue (witness the problem with voter registration).
2) Law doesn't deal with perceived need. The laws can be as sensible as you like but it's still a "prohibition" problem.
A debate around socialism may be separate topic from one about gun control but really...the one can't take place without the other already having been held.
On the post: New York Times Lies About City's Murder Rate, NYPD's Clearance Rate To Sell Fear To Its Readers
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: consequences needed
"While Americans can be louder and more obviously deluded on some of these problems, you're kidding yourself if you think nobody around you on this side of the pond is vulnerable to the same things."
Idiots are everywhere. However, there's a massive difference between "5% of the population are morons" and "25% of the population are morons".
The UK in particular, however, is a bit weird in the regard that it, like the US, has a political system far more tolerant to the utterly inept and performers than is the norm in many other countries. Boris Johnson built his entire career around playing clown, for example. I blame first past the post here - it drastically lowers the bar of required public competency in the body politic.
On the post: Rep. Thomas Massie Seems To Have Skipped Over The 1st Amendment In His Rush To 'Defend' The 2nd
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Two problems
"This Is a matter of a court saying, no exceptions, a person can’t block someone else based on political opinion. "
No, it's a matter of the court saying government can't block someone else based on political opinion. That's actually 1A, right there. In the particular instance where Massie communicates as a congressman he is, in fact, no longer a person. He's government.
"Wonder what your opinion will be when a few sheet heads decide to follow some far left anti-white racist."
Please, lostin, blow that dog whistle just a bit harder, m'kay?
For the record, though, if a public official turns out to be a racist you've got bigger problems. Also, the KKK will declare someone like MLK racist because to them, him preaching equality, is racism against white people.
On the post: Report Showcases How Elon Musk Undermined His Own Engineers And Endangered Public Safety
Re: Lack of research from Mr Bode showing through again.
"Is techdirt just an SEO platform for the NYT these days?"
Says the shill who built an account just to post two comments in defense of Musk.
I note you didn't dispute anything of actual relevance in the OP.
On the post: YouTube Copyright Transparency Report Shows The Absurd Volume Of Copyright Claims It Gets
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"It is the creative ability that is a sellable commodity."
...which of course is something corporations handling copyrights knows damn well which is why they work so hard and lobby so much to make the business reality one where the creative ability is locked in indentured serfdom or a slave contract (looking at you, Sony).
On the post: Missouri Governor Still Lying About Reporters Who Uncovered Ridiculous Bad State Computer Security; Still Insists They Were Hackers
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Liars
"...that is the exact opposite of the difference between being a legislator and being president."
And Bernie no longer gets to write policy. Even his own. He's become a high-profile mascot.
As will any other democrat refusing to bow to the game of mutual backscratching.
On the post: YouTuber Has 150 Anime Reviews And 'Let's Draws' Hit With Copyright Claims All At Once
Re: Re: Aww, 3 years stealing the work of others, down the Youtu
"Explain how reviewing anime/manga and giving drawing lessons is theft in any possible way."
That's just old Baghdad Bob. Even back ten years or so when his "Bobmail" persona or any of his sock puppets were trolling Torrentfreak, he really went the extra distance to demonstrate that he never believed in "principles".
With him it'll always be the biggest copyright stakeholder is always right.
He's just sycophantically beholden to the most deplorable actor in any topic...which I guess is why he branched out into defending the alt-right and the KKK over the BLM protests.
On the post: Yet Another Study Shows Mainstream Media Is A Key Vector In Spreading Misinformation
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"He's definitely ideological, at least."
Yeah but the ideology he favors wears a brown shirt and an armband in red, white and black. Or white sheets.
On the post: PewDiePie Dives Into The Mark Fitzpatrick, Toei Animation Saga
Re: Re: Japan IS dumb about copyright
"Stop a country from applying its own cultural norms because a foreigner got offended by them?"
I'd like to hold that if a country chokes it's own #MeToo movement over the fact that women making a ruckus about being abused is considered far more outrageous than women quietly being exploited and raped...then there is definitely a cause for strong words, at least.
Japans xenophobia is more ubiquitous and rooted far more systematically than the racism a black man might live through in the US...but it's more subtle. Rarely a risk for violence, just a great number of politely yet firmly closed doors. A muted yet persistent fear of the other, applied broadly to anyone not born japanese.
That makes it a topic worth debating.
On the post: PewDiePie Dives Into The Mark Fitzpatrick, Toei Animation Saga
Re: Japan IS dumb about copyright
"Japan is racist. It’s a monoethnic block that voluntarily meets most of its own social needs."
It's more like xenophobic. Japanese culture has a real problem with everything which doesn't fit the accepted template. That they are still on the level where the #MeToo movement was sunk in that nation because the public was outraged over the unrepentant gall of women rocking the boat really says it all.
Yeah, the gaijin is suspect. You can't trust him to conform to societal rules, so be wary of him.
He might decide to eat your children, or worse, talk to you in a loud voice in a public place. Worse still, being seen talking to him might make others assume that you are going to start drawing attention to yourself. Better shut up and inconspicuously keep your distance.
The teen dying their hair/wearing their school uniform the wrong way? Obviously a delinquent who sleeps with anything that moves, does drugs, and steals everything not nailed down. Talking to him/her will smear you the same way.
Japan as a culture resembles nothing so much as that isolated clannish small town we read about in Stephen King novels. The one where everyone spends incredible effort to remain civil in any circumstance and no one says anything which might be grounds for conflict - until one spark too many flies and two stalwart pillars of the community, quiet for decades, decide to knife each other behind city hall.
It is changing, however. The younger generation, as always, is chafing at the societal leash. It's just slow and usually met with heavy enough public censure the pressure to conform breaks most young rebels into staid defenders of the status quo soon enough.
On the post: PewDiePie Dives Into The Mark Fitzpatrick, Toei Animation Saga
Re:
"On the other hand we all know it would end up being ridden hard & put away wet by the cartels and we'd end up with laws that make Japan's crazy look really balanced."
Well, yeah. I usually like to advocate copyright being excised from law completely and an author's work being shoved under trademark instead. That would solve so many problems.
But I'm pretty sure the only thing we can realistically hope for is to swing the axe and tell authors writing is a hobby, not a job.
On the post: PewDiePie Dives Into The Mark Fitzpatrick, Toei Animation Saga
Re: Re: Not a direct quote from out of the blue: 'That, no. Stop
"Why does Disney and similar corporate interests get to "grift" off of other people's works and nobody else can?"
One of two options;
1) Old Blue/Baghdad Bob/Bobmail is an ignorant moron who hasn't realized yet that almost every "creative" work in modern times is largely based on older stories. That every piece of music is a derivative because there really are just that many note sequences we can accept. And that describing reality isn't original.
2) It's irrelevant whether he knows or not because shilling for the most deplorable of people - like copyright conmen, Trump and the Proud Boys - gives him a boner.
On the post: PewDiePie Dives Into The Mark Fitzpatrick, Toei Animation Saga
Re: Not a direct quote from out of the blue: 'That, no. Stop tha
So to summarize, Baghdad Bob, all you've got is another bunch of false premises, strongly asserted in bad faith along with some ad hom?
"Also, I remind of what's wrong in general with teh internets"
Oh, we know what's wrong with them. Useless sacks of rancid shit like you keep trolling on them.
On the post: CNN Goes Full Moral Panic About Kids And Social Media
Re: Re: Digital Addiction
""Sorry" but you've been downgraded to "shh honey the adults are talking.""
The point where Koby still merited gentle reminders is long past. These days all he's earned is a "Stop fscking lying, moron!" and a troll flag.
On the post: An Unplanned, Ad-Hoc Collaboration Reveals The On-The-Ground Truth About China's Internment Camps For Uyghurs
Re: Re: Re:
"Maybe it is, indeed, time for the nukes to fly. I would like to reiterate, I am not a bloodthirsty war advocate, I am merely saying, that's your only way out."
Global genocide isn't the answer. If the nukes fly, we all die.
"Biden and future administrations sure as fuck ain't gonna get Southeast Asia back on THEIR sode in the forseeable future, or the rest of the world, EUROPE INCLUDED."
If the US manages to produce someone capable of reversing this trend it will be a democrat who's first horsewhipped his own party into ethical shape and then retired half of his own party and all of the current GOP to some remote island for being sociopathic asshats in proven bad faith visavi their citizenry.
"...if only because the EU fears Russia more than Xi."
Which is correct. China wants to be top dog and has millennia of history of treating their satellites well. Russia, otoh, are expansionist and don't have a very good record of contributing to the wealth and prosperity of their allies.
From both the EU and US perspective, opposing China in any material way means accepting that your own country will tank. The economy will collapse or slow, pension funds will start hemorrhaging. If you don't want your citizens to lose purchasing power and prosperity you'll need to make nice with China...at least until you've come up with a long-term plan of wresting yourself free off the self-inflicted yoke.
I'm really torn about this. On the one hand I abhor china's thin-skinned authoritarianism. On the other I have to admit that it was the shortsighted greed and ineptitude of our industry and political system which put us into this position in the first place. I'll blame China for its atrocities against it's dissidents. But I can't blame them for the monumental fail we have to own ourselves.
Next >>