Search found 498 matches
- Sat Jul 21, 2012 8:15 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: Can you smell any weed in space?
- Replies: 0
- Views: 2236
Can you smell any weed in space?
Well, not really, but apparently you can smell something - maybe ions. Interesting story, relevant to the space and science interests of this crowd, but seems to fit best in general... although it might disappoint because it's not about drugs: http://www.space.com/16688-what-does-space-smell-like.ht...
- Fri Jul 13, 2012 8:41 am
- Forum: News
- Topic: Mach Effect progress
- Replies: 2707
- Views: 1466726
Quite frankly I think that the occasional comparison of Mach Effect to other concepts is useful. A bit of comparison helps to show which theory is more solid - and so far, M-E has beaten others out... accepting that this all a bit "fringe"... but M-E much less so (based in established speculation ab...
- Thu Jul 12, 2012 3:02 am
- Forum: News
- Topic: A particle so evil it's very existence threatens mankind!
- Replies: 31
- Views: 34621
Around the same time, there is a claimed observation of dark matter, which got a bit overshadowed by the claimed observation of the Higgs:
http://gizmodo.com/5923832/scientists-o ... -time-ever
http://gizmodo.com/5923832/scientists-o ... -time-ever
- Wed Jun 27, 2012 2:24 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: Second Worst President in US History.
- Replies: 530
- Views: 199616
Space is big, and laser beams and particle beams travel at light speed. At geosynchronous orbits and below, that means they can reach out and touch someone/something within a few seconds (or less, depending on when the target is). Add in the light speed delay for observation as well, and then maybe ...
- Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:19 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Second Worst President in US History.
- Replies: 530
- Views: 199616
Also, this seems as good a place as any to post this:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ ... ost-canada
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ ... ost-canada
- Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:18 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Second Worst President in US History.
- Replies: 530
- Views: 199616
Such battle stations *would* be possible given a budget of tens of trillions of dollars and a development timeline of a few decades. We can make lasers, we can launch stuff into space. With enough work, we probably can make computers and sensors that can track and target missiles in flight. He just ...
- Tue Jun 19, 2012 9:07 pm
- Forum: News
- Topic: Has Wiffleball Been Created Ever?
- Replies: 276
- Views: 75227
Incidentally, if Stalin hadn't murdered much of the Soviet officer corps in the late 1930s, including Marshall Tukhachevsky, who in his books on "Deep War" laid out the Soviet version of blitzkreig which was used successfully in 1944-45, the Russians may have beaten the Germans quite effectively in ...
- Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:58 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: People Need To Be Coerced
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2210
- Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:57 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: People Need To Be Coerced
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2210
Oh, also, plastic bag bans may soon be coming to a city near you: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1207173--plastic-bag-ban-reaction-from-toronto-grocery-shoppers-on-surprise-vote I've either recycled plastic bags or reused them for garbage since the 1990s. For some reason certain types carry on ...
- Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:45 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: People Need To Be Coerced
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2210
I don't advocate encouraging people to smoke, but I do remember over the last 10-15 years, as smoking was progressively banned in bars, bar patios, other venues where people used to smoke and drink, and finally in city parks... as that was happening, people would joke: "just wait, once they have smo...
- Wed Jun 06, 2012 3:15 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: Human Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be
- Replies: 26
- Views: 8711
Well, there's what Skipjack pointed out: It is amount of surface area of the brain that makes much of a difference. Also the way the different areas of the brain are connected. This is fairly well known, and not particularly controversial. It's possible that those larger 1500cc brains weren't as wel...
- Wed Jun 06, 2012 12:43 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: Human Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be
- Replies: 26
- Views: 8711
There was definitely some extermination of potential rivals - the following example is amusing after a fashion: Gregory of Tours recounts to us how Clovis, the first king of "France," (essentially the first Frankish king who successfully added most of Gaul to his domains), gave a speech towards the ...
- Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:55 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: Human Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be
- Replies: 26
- Views: 8711
The social welfare state may be an extreme example of it, but I think that most societies/civilizations - even ones in early transition from stone age to iron age - function to reduce selection pressure. Difficult to say with the ones that conduct organized mass murder - the mass murder is likely in...
- Wed May 16, 2012 2:34 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: Manufacturing Poverty
- Replies: 89
- Views: 16406
North America could easily get off imported oil, if you consider Canadian sources domestic. Combining "fracking" for oil in the continental U.S. with the Alberta oilsands, building the Keystone pipeline and some offshore drilling, and North America could supply all its own oil for a while (decades)....
- Wed May 16, 2012 2:05 am
- Forum: News
- Topic: Recovery.Gov Project Tracker
- Replies: 1822
- Views: 1335591
You explained why many large companies eventually fail. Take Kodak, which we've discussed in a few posts elsewhere on this forum. They seemed to have the film processing/camera market nailed down. Then, digital cameras came along. They didn't have the foresight to spend their large revenues on devel...