Have Ships Gotten Too Large

[Schneibster]

They teach you all this in espionage school, Unit 61398?

Right after they taught you how you stole Google's sourcecode?

[Jccarlton]

Batten down the hatches, there be spam in these waters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... ng#History

[Schneibster]

All I can do is report more spam.

Only you can choose to behave like an adult human being instead of a young chimpanzee.

[Schneibster]

And here's another interesting thread buried by the spammer from China.

[Schneibster]

I don't think, for the record, that ships've gotten too large, nor that there aren't means of handling further expansion, which might indeed be problematic. We're good at problematic. We fix.

I have to say I get a lot of inspiration from the British Navy in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries, and also from the US Navy in the same age. They did not admit they could not; they did. And that was how it was. We hammered them to a standstill in the War of 1812.

I think people who live on mainlands think differently than people who live on islands. I believe the latter have a better conception of the position of the human race in the cosmos than the former.

I believe that the US' particular talent is to keep the inquisitiveness of islanders among the resources of the continentals.

Of course, as a 3/4 Scandinavian and 1/4 English Irish I of course see my people as the best of all. You pretend you're better at your peril.



I will never dishonor the British Navy; despite being a Scandinavian immigrant on three grandparents' sides to the Pacific Northwest of the US, I claim Sir Horatio Nelson as my personal hero. He was a genius of naval strategy.

I would not be surprised to see his tactical and strategic principles being used in inter-alliance battles in the Asteroid Belt in a few centuries.

[Jccarlton]

I doubt that spammer understand marine engineering.

[Teahive]

I expect there to be county-sized floating sea-states not long after I die. Maybe with national status, and maybe denying banking laws and stuff.

Have fun getting them to account for their carbon.

Account for their carbon? What do you mean, the carbon they'll take out of the atmosphere? The carbon used as structural building material?

[Schneibster]

I expect there to be county-sized floating sea-states not long after I die. Maybe with national status, and maybe denying banking laws and stuff.

Have fun getting them to account for their carbon.

Account for their carbon? What do you mean, the carbon they'll take out of the atmosphere? The carbon used as structural building material?

I mean the carbon they'll emit, no doubt to the consternation of the other nations. And they'll be all full of refugees, further clouding the political and legal landscape, and making all kinds of trouble for people who try to stop them making various sorts of messes one can easily think of.

I think the big industrial economies will use one or more of the known techniques for extracting carbon from the atmosphere and establish a closed carbon cycle. Continuing to coddle fundie nutjobs is how to lose.

For the moment the biggest threat is China. We must convince China to go nuclear. India too if we can.

[Teahive]

I mean the carbon they'll emit, no doubt to the consternation of the other nations.
[...]
I think the big industrial economies will use one or more of the known techniques for extracting carbon from the atmosphere and establish a closed carbon cycle.

With those methods established, why shouldn't other countries be happy about extra carbon released into the atmosphere?

[Schneibster]

I mean the carbon they'll emit, no doubt to the consternation of the other nations.
[...]
I think the big industrial economies will use one or more of the known techniques for extracting carbon from the atmosphere and establish a closed carbon cycle.

With those methods established, why shouldn't other countries be happy about extra carbon released into the atmosphere?

Really what we want is a closed cycle for everyone. With these sorts of technologies the Sun provides all the power we need, just as it provides all our food.

Then we simply take control of the carbon cycle and use it to eliminate the less desirable Milankovic cycles, and keep the Earth's climate optimum. Too hot? Take some carbon out and store it underground for a few centuries. Too cold? Shut down fuel manufacturing for a while and go get some stashed fuel and burn it. The Sun provides all the energy.

That's my expectation long-term anyway. I just think there's going to be a lot of fuss before we get there, as I've said. Three billion isn't that big a deal, if you're not one of the three billion.

Now, I also think we're going to get very much more ambitious than this. Or, well, I wish/hope so. And we'll need far greater power supplies for that. But for running a domestic economy for our world, this seems pretty good. Also it seems to me a lot safer than trying to modify the Earth's orbit.

[GIThruster]

Please don't feed the troll. It is known to throw feces at people when it's angry.

[Schneibster]

They're so cute when they're jealous.

[Teahive]

I just think there's going to be a lot of fuss before we get there, as I've said. Three billion isn't that big a deal, if you're not one of the three billion.

There's already a lot of unnecessary and damaging fuss. Three billion isn't that big a deal if it's never going to happen anyway.

[Stubby]

they still are not designing ships to withstand rogue waves
so is bigger mean better at withstanding rogue waves or does it make them more vulnerable?

[paperburn1]

Most modern merchant ships are designed to handle 15 ton per square foot of wave pressure. A true rouge wave could put as much as 75 tons per square foot. Military ships can handle more than 15 but how much more I could not say .
Bottom line bigger is better but you cant win them all....