Off topic, but crazy-ass gun nut Texas Republican Steve Stockman's campaign HQ has been condemned as a fire hazard/sweatshop and seized by the city of wherever. Photos are here:
and it's incredible how it evokes everything movies trained me to recognise as Sleazy America. It looks like it's had porn filmed in it, people slain in it, meth cooked in it, slaves confined in it, and Internet trolls based in it, all at once. Perfectly, it used to be a motorcycle workshop.
LB, it doesn't count if they got it up there by having their citizens stand on each other's shoulders.
I find it incredibly exciting that China and India are becoming major players in space exploration. Sure, it's just a byproduct of nationalism, but putting stuff on the moon in undeniably awesome.
2: The earth-to-moon distance is (either right now, or on average) 384,400,000 m, so that's about 4 PRC citizens per meter. The United States also has enough people to do that, so this could be the beginnings of a new space race. True, it'd be at a more perilous 1 person/meter ratio, but our great experience at cheerleading and forming human pyramids should prove to be "the right stuff."
I've seen enough Las Vegas shows to know the Chinese are no slouches at acrobatics.
I assume the ground-penetrating radar means they're finally going to locate Jimmy Hoffa.
and it's incredible how it evokes everything movies trained me to recognise as Sleazy America. It looks like it's had porn filmed in it, people slain in it, meth cooked in it, slaves confined in it, and Internet trolls based in it, all at once.
I think you mean "Sleazy European port city".
I knew about this, but I know what you mean about news in general. I think I'm surprisingly well-informed for someone who doesn't follow the news at all. I rarely get a newspaper and when I do it's not a good one, I don't watch TV news, and I see a lot of headlines on blogs and Reddit and Facebook but don't really focus on news stuff or even usually follow links. I basically get my news from osmosis.
I'm a bit curious about this Chinese mission because I assume they're using more modern technology, right? I mean, I read somewhere or other that the American space program uses technology that's prehistoric, by the standards of computing, because it's what was built into the systems 30 or 40 years ago. (And for other reasons, but still.) I'm sure an iPod could record a lot more data than what went up in the last mission.
I'm sure an iPod could record a lot more data than what went up in the last mission.
I'm not an expert, Cyrus, but I'm pretty sure an iPod plays music, it doesn't record.
The instruments are heavily constrained by the conditions they have to withstand.
I read somewhere or other that the American space program uses technology that's prehistoric, by the standards of computing, because it's what was built into the systems 30 or 40 years ago.
I'm not sure what you mean by that. What's still being used that was built 30 or 40 years ago? Satellites that take data weren't; they keep increasing in technological sophistication.
I think Cyrus is remembering a rule that says NASA has to use technology proven to work in space or something similar, so they're not risking mission failures. It was a rule Congress passed to protect astronauts, I think. It's not true, though, that they can't test new technology while using the previous version for the critical functions.
Probably the stuff on Voyager 1 has not been updated . . . or so the lizard people want you to think.
I think maybe this discussion is eliding a distinction between the actual technology used to put things in space and the things that are put there. NASA is definitely not crippling their scientific missions by requiring them to use old technology.
I'm a bit curious about this Chinese mission because I assume they're using more modern technology, right?
More modern than what? Recent lunar probes are using pretty sophisticated instruments
Because of the time it takes for information to travel that distance, Voyager 1 is still running Flash Player 11.1.102.55.
13: Right, people frequently complain that launch vehicle technology has been stagnant or even going backwards as a result of the shuttle program. I've even heard it suggested that it would take a lot of effort to recreate the technology used to get to the moon. I'm not sure how much of that is true and how much of it is just people grousing about how misguided he shuttle program was.
In any case, the instruments we send up are obviously much more sophisticated. I mean, we can detect extra-solar planets now!
It's great that China is starting to be able to do expensive, world-class science. It's frustrating that it can be really hard to get information about it. E.g. a year and a half ago I was at a meeting where people were discussing future satellites that could make certain kinds of measurements. A lot of the attention was on a mostly-Russian venture launching about five years in the future. One guy at the meeting pipes up: "I was visiting a lab in China last month and they have a similar satellite launching in two years." No one else at the meeting had ever heard of it. Googling its name turned up a single Powerpoint talk that mentioned it. Apparently it didn't occur to the Chinese Academy of Sciences that a ~billion-dollar experiment should have an easily accessible public website so the rest of the world could find out what they're up to. (Now it finally has one, hosted by their collaborators in Switzerland, but it still contains very little information.)
7: Also, I know the iPad has been to space, because they said so in that commercial in which the iPad was hidden by the pencil.
7: Also, I know the iPad has been to space, because they said so in that commercial in which the iPad was hidden by the pencil.
Apparently it didn't occur to the Chinese Academy of Sciences that a ~billion-dollar experiment should have an easily accessible public website so the rest of the world could find out what they're up to. (Now it finally has one, hosted by their collaborators in Switzerland, but it still contains very little information.)
I expect the lack of public information will lead most people to assume that the goal of these secretive organizations is to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt.
From my limited outside perspective, it seems that conflicts between Chinese academics are pretty intense. Publicizing your actions to anyone but your superiors in a Hobbesian world, especially details about ongoing resource allocation.
FWIW, I was thinking of things like this.
The flight computer aboard the space shuttle has less than one percent of the power of an Xbox 360 game console. Astronauts load programs directing the phases of a mission - liftoff, orbit, landing - into the computer one at a time after removing the program for the previous segment. Why hasn't NASA upgraded the computer? The agency values its 30-year history of reliability. That said, astronauts don't go into space with only one computer. Crew laptops and other laptops also make the trip.
I probably overestimated how much it was caused by reliance on older systems, but I was aware there were "other reasons," so I wasn't completely wrong...
Yeah, the Chinese moon rover hasn't been that widely reported in the US. We're much more interested space station plumbing these days!
Also, fun fact: many current US launch vehicles (Atlas V, Antares, but not SpaceX) actually use Russian-built first-stage engines.
The earth-to-moon distance is (either right now, or on average) 384,400,000 m, so that's about 4 PRC citizens per meter.
So...even in outer space Chinese people are cramped. And I thought Beijing real estate was bad.
Apparently it didn't occur to the Chinese Academy of Sciences that a ~billion-dollar experiment should have an easily accessible public website so the rest of the world could find out what they're up to.
Accessible at all or accessible in English?
Maybe relatedly, I feel like the Chinese internet diverged from the West's in about 1995 and preserved many of the original features, such as non-ironic GIFs, neon-pink text on yellow backgrounds, and confusing page layout.
24: There were one or two mentions of it in Chinese, but not much more information there.
Isn't the current US view basically "we've been to the moon, and it sucks."
24.last: The Chinese space agency has a Geocities page?
21: Yeah, that aspect of the culture seems to stand in the way of scientific progress. One American scientist I know who's heavily involved in trying to set up a new institute in China said "the most important thing they have to learn from us is that young people should have no respect for their elders".
I want a pressure group focused on transferring NASA's resources to getting payload-to-orbit price down by any means available. Then things could get interesting again.
29: You got that right sonny.
Sure, it's just a byproduct of nationalism, but putting stuff on the moon things on top of things is undeniably awesome
How Did I Not Know This?
I tell ya, Twitter's the thing. A little tweaking of your feed and you can get it to where just about anything you are potentially interested in passes in front of your eyes. Now granted, if you click on too many of the links or start interacting with people it ruins your life, but totally worth the risk.
I've even heard it suggested that it would take a lot of effort to recreate the technology used to get to the moon.
You're probably thinking of the engines that powered the Saturn V.
30: What does "interesting" mean to you in this context?
36: Floating nipple visible from Earth.
Floating nipple visible from Earth in geostationary orbit over Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
Something other than science-fair projects.
Which I'm sure is terribly unfair to the researchers involved, but there's a masturbatory quality to everything done directly by humans in space as long as it costs so damn much.
Wait, I thought the US invented the moon for that JFK speech.
What else do you have in mind that could be done in space?
Space Disco
Space Brothel
Space Bouncy Castle
Those are your options.
44: Can I combine all three?
Oh, I can only imagine what sexy astronaut uniforms will be required under Halfordismo!
If you want a vision of the future, imagine young Jane Fonda taking off her pink spacesuit forever.
I'M NOT FONDA HANOI JANE!
40: so expensive science is always "masturbatory"?
Now I sort of want to go back to the career change thread to figure out what everyone could do under Halfordismo. This is really bad procrastination, especially given I'm at home rather than work.
49: Only those parts of expensive science sanctioned by Halfordismo.
so expensive science is always "masturbatory"?
LARGE HARDON COLLIDER HA HA
49: Holy oversensitive, Batman!
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Speaking of Holy. Code Red and Green! Christmas carolers coming done the corridor. I guess faking a seizure in a hospital would be considered bad form and quickly exposed. But it would probably clear them out. OhMi God! They're here. Respect the closed door!
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2 of my references were contacted for a job that I applied to.
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50 -- help build the future, of course. Or serve on the crocodile maintenance or the bikini Ekranoplan flying steakhouse teams, if you meet with sufficient approval.
The reporting was oddly low key. I love that the rover is called the Jade Rabbit.
56: Ooh, dibs on not crocodile maintenance!
There are different tiers of crocodile maintenance. We'll need some large animal vets, of course, but people will also have to manage the crocodiles' food supply, which will consist primarily of libertarians and secondarily of people who have acted contrary to my desires.
You also need somebody to care for the little birds that eat the scraps of food from the crocodiles' teeth.
They're probably not going to be that healthy if they live on scraps of libertarians.
49: I'm thinking of the stuff that only makes sense as preparation for a future with lots and lots of humans in space.
57: Very. I want out of my current job so bad.
66: Mining asteroids! There's even a non-vanishing possibility of seeing it happen in my lifetime. I'm really excited about that.
In many ways, we're living in the golden age of space exploration. Check out the current Mars Exploration Family Portrait - our robots are crawling all over Mars like lawyers on a footballer. Not only are they crawling over the surface, they're actually co-operating - the rovers on the surface have been tasked to investigate stuff the orbiters imaged from space, and the orbiters to investigate stuff the rovers found.
We're a bit short of monkeys in a can, but the robotic work is really amazing.
64: I didn't know any of that was happening, but I guess I don't pay attention to it due to lack of interest.
In terms of things that don't relate to putting humans in space, NASA is doing huge amounts of really great science on a budget that's not nearly as big as it should be.
62 - Sadly, I discovered (when trying to explain a book to Jane, even) that it's apparently a myth, dating to Herodotus, that Egyptian plovers clean crocodiles' teeth. I mean, I wish Herodotus' monopods and giant gold-collecting Indian ants were real, too.
Most stuff they have humans doing in space is justified as "research into the effects of humans being in space." Outside of that, humans are needed for making tricky repairs but not much else. The non-human-spaceflight parts of NASA do awesome work.
The Webb space telescope is going to be awesome and totally worth it, cost overruns and all.
I wish someone would send a new mission to Enceladus.
A slightly more humane program under Halfordismo would be to send all the libertarians to the Moon to build their free-market utopia.
70: I'm going to keep repeating it as fact regardless. Who wants to ruina good Far Side joke.
What else do you have in mind that could be done in space?
Tourism! I'd love to see the earth from orbit. (Google maps doesn't count.)
77: I think the private sector's already working on that.
Studio version. Do I even need to sign comments like 79?
A better youtube bit, because it includes the next one.
We gotta get out and down, back into the future, beyond our own time again, reachin' for tomorrow, it's so fine . . . Starshine . . . The melting acid fever, streaking through my mind, makes it, ah, so difficult to see you, and, ah, so easy to touch you, and melt with you, feel with you, make Love for you, at you, around you . . . I Love You.
77: True. Unfortunately Virgin Galactic doesn't actually go into orbit, and I insist going all the way around the planet at least once or twice. Realistically I can't see how that will ever be remotely affordable, although maybe it makes more sense if you stay up there for several months doing plumbing repairs...
74 reminds me of a Sarah Silverman inspirational quote:
"If we can put a man on the moon, we can put a man with AIDS on the moon. And pretty soon, we'll be able to put everyone with AIDS on the moon!"
82: Agreed. It's not really space travel until you have to work to return to Earth.
Speaking of Halfordismo, I just spent the last 5 hours at a bison feast--20 lbs of grass-fed bison turned into god-knows-how-many dishes, all delicious. It turns out the CEO of a new grass-fed luxury bison meat company is a paleo/crossfit guy from LA, and the feast was for the purposes of photographing the meat. The point is, if you want to buy yourself something for Christmas, Halford, think bison.
A slightly more humane program under Halfordismo would be to send all the libertarians to the Moon to build their free-market utopia.
Do we have to send them air as well? Or only as much as they can pay for?
Virgin Galactic is in its infancy. In ten years time it, or whatever puts it out of business, will be doing trips round the moon. And deaths from inadequate nutrition in Mississippi will be running at 8%. Because priorities.
74: A slightly more humane program under Halfordismo would be to send all the libertarians to the Moon to build their free-market utopia.
I'm guessing not actually intended as a The Moon is a Harsh Mistress reference?
70 -- Not ants, but actually something marmoset-like, I believe; rediscovered and bombed into possible extinction a couple ten years ago.
85 is great. I'm looking forward to hearing back from Halford about his experience with it.
86: A friend of mine who used to work with Space Adventures (the guys who send gazillionaires to the space station) put together a mission model to do a lunar flyby for tourism. Comes in at about $100 million IIRC.
90. But people are aiming for this kind of thing. Which certainly looks optimistic at the moment, but their CEO is a former Apollo flight director, so I wouldn't rule it out; their business model looks like the right approach, for better or worse. And compared to Branson's tickets at $250k for sub-orbital flight or the $40M paid by the last tourist on the ISS, it's a snip.
87: Correct. I don't read your earth books.
I don't read your earth books.
I got a bunch of books about how to build a house out of cob. I don't have any place to put such a house yet, but reading them at the in-laws will at least keep them from asking me when I'm going to move into a suburban split-level.
85 -- what makes you think I'm not already thinking of bison?
a house out of cob.
How does that work in a climate where it rains? Isn't that more a deserty kind of thing?
I think a lot of houses in Scotland/Wales are made out of cob, so it must not melt when it rains. I keep dreaming of buying a remote wildnerness parcel in Northeast California to flee to when everything goes south; maybe Moby can go in on it with me and build a cob house there. As long as it has some trap doors and underground passages to keep the gold and the guns buried.
86: My cousin is a rocket scientist, working on Spaceship Two for Virgin Galactic. He and his co-workers were invited to a party for ticketholders. It was a very fancy party in LA. He said that the ticketholders would ask each other which ticket number they have. When he said he didn't have a ticket, but worked for Virgin Galactic (really, Scaled Composites), the ticketholders next assumed he would bring them drinks. He wanted to explain the concept of a class of workers between ticketholders and waitstaff.
I'm guessing "cob" means something other than "corn cobs" in this context.
The secret is long eaves, apparently. There are cob houses still standing after hundreds of years in the U.K.
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I just had a beer at our office party. I never drink at lunch these days, and am feeling surprisingly disoriented and vague after one beer. I think my liver may have just given up on dealing with alcohol at all.
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He wanted to explain the concept of a class of workers between ticketholders and waitstaff.
He should have an iPad with episodes of The Brady Bunch.
Good. Now, let's start filing some motions. "Motion to Kiss My Ass" is a good one.
98: It's an ancient British word for gobs of mud mixed with straw.
"Motion To Tell You What I Really Think About Your Litigation Practices."
"Addendum to Prior Motion: And Your Manners."
One of my favorite attorneys from last summer used to walk around the office saying "dookus teekum" in a silly accent whenever she was preparing that kind of subpoena. It was pretty entertaining. Have another beer and try it out.
Let this guy, of whom you've probably heard, be your inspiration. I particularly like the "Motion for Restoration of Sanity."
Bryan Stevenson tells a great story about filing a "Motion to Try the Defendant as a 50-Year-Old Wealthy White Guy" or something like that. Too good to fact-check.
A public defender friend once had a client who was asked by the judge if he had anything more he wanted to say. The response: "I move that you get up out of my face."
108: Judge Rules White Girl Will Be Tried as Black Adult.
And we just got a copy of about the wackiest decision ever. I am about to draft a Motion To Point Out To The Court That [Redacted before ever posting. But it was terse, and irritated].
It's an ancient British word for gobs of mud mixed with straw.
So adobe, basically.
Kind of, but I thought abode was mostly made into bricks and then stacked but cob is just built in place.
It usually is made into bricks, but it can also just be poured in place, and that was actually the main way it was used in the prehistoric Southwest.
Is it significantly different from wattle and daub? Because I enjoy saying wattle and daub.
Yeah, wattle and daub (called jacal in the Southwest) has a rigid framework of sticks ("wattle") that supports the mud ("daub"). Cob/adobe just supports itself.
That there is a load-bearing pile of mud.
God, it's so hard to keep track of all these comedy double acts. Wattle and Daub are from the UK, right?
With a name like that they could hardly be from anywhere else.
Whatever you do, don't build your house out of Key and Peele.
93: Are you the one who mentioned cob houses here a week or so ago? Someone did, and I'd been having a conversation with a woman here in real life the week before. It turns out not to be the same kind of hippie house our friends built by hand, which is why I'd looked into it.
Yes, Moby's been talking about cob houses for a while now. I had never heard of them before.
I hadn't known the name, but it was one of the construction types I was fuzzily aware of in the Turkish village where I did archaeology ages ago.
Yeah, it seems to go by different names in different places (where it was presumably independently invented, since it's a pretty obvious idea). As I mentioned above, in the Southwest it's usually called "poured (or puddled) adobe."
Cordwood masonry wins on looks -- I have dreams about doing that. Or a Tiny House. I think other family members would prefer to have the Tiny House inside a Larger House, though.
I am about to draft a Motion To Point Out To The Court That The Court Must Be a Black Hole Because The Court Just Sucks.
Or a Tiny House
My house is pretty tiny. One thing I've noticed twice this week: it's really obvious if I'm in the bathroom when visitors drop by.
The aged Emir of Kano lives in a mud palace, or anyway he did forty years ago when my father visited him as s young, go-ahead African monarch. The Emir, that is.