nomadpete

Is the wind changing? BBC news:- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has conceded defeat after 16 years in power, with the opposition securing a landslide election win Mr pootin won't be pleased.

But ..... The circus needs a better script writer. "I'm going to solve the blockade and reopen the strait by imposing a blockade and closing the strait." And then what? "My blockade is bigger than yours!" The strait didn't need to Re open until.... Donny blocked it.

Well, the development of flying machines is an example of that. Initially, there was no corporate interest - no money to be made from new fangled stuff. Big money is conservative. So development was by colaboration between privateers around the world, blokes sharing knowledge (ip). Just some hobbyists trying to solve some problem that investors couldn't see as a moneymaker. Along came the infamous Wright Bros (the first tech bros). They collected the free knowledge, combined it to make a working proof of concept, patented it, promoted it and owned it (briefly). Capitalism rules! Even in communist countries.

The proposal is to place all these crowbars (& other nasty explodable things) in low orbit. This is in order to have a quick deployment. I thought that low orbit stuff is always a decaying orbit. How do they plan to prevent this?

Yes, and no. Our behaviour really stems from the fact that humans are the result of evolution, not intelligent design. We collectively refuse to accept that we are animals governed by survival instinct which is fine tuned to respond to short term threats to our existence. We struggle to respond to any long term threat. Our brain just can't do it. This fact is the biggest single threat to humanity.

Only in Amerika..... Look! Jesus loves science! You can now ask Jesus anything via A.I. "For some evangelical Christians, faith is about having a personal relationship with Jesus. At $1.99 per minute, the tech company Just Like Me is taking that concept to a new level." I expect AI jesus can interpret Aramaic..... https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/buddhabot-1-99-chats-ai-110406192.html

Informative, Octave. Nice to see some regulatory action. But in our changing world, the big players are less and less inclined to obey their own rules. These days all it takes is a stroke of a felt pen, to declare an emergency that throws rule books out the window. The threat of orbiting weaponry has been hanging over our heads since Ronny Raygun's time.

So Mel has them too? Oh, that unfortunate family is suffering!

I really cannot see any of these alleged 'left wing loonies'. Who are these people and how are they different from the 'right wing loonies' and 'centrist loonies'? Name calling only hinders any argument. Sure, I am cynical about all our politicians, I think the system impedes progress. Too many things get bogged down instead of efficiently moving forward. In my opinion the real reason for that level of talk is that for any gov't decision, a pathway doesn't get communicated to the public in a transparent and balanced way. We should have the pros and cons plus the tradeoffs (full cost/benefit, not just in $ ) Otherwise we cannot truly see if some policy is 'loony'.

Aaah, I didn't know they are an inherited trait.

Elon will have lots of targets waiting for him to practice his aim. Knowing his development methods, I'd prefer him to practice aiming away from me.

At the end of the day, it is all about money. Idealism comes next. It is a great way to make money. The general public comes last. But they are essential to support the idealism. That's how capitalism works.

True, but.... Our politicians seem to do well at making dumb remarks, and making decisions that seem silly to us. Maybe if they worked on transparent communication they would garner more respect and trust. Let's hear the real logic behind their actions.

Pretty sure you are right. I just wanted to justify my view that pretty much the rest of the world now has a dim view of the American administration and the whole country. Their leader is a source of global ridicule.

Thought this Wall Street article belongs here. Looks like Elon-the-Muskovite might get some serious space contracts. Just think of the possibilities! "Starship will make it possible to use low Earth orbit as a parking lot for a giant space-based arsenal. This would allow the U.S. to pre-position conventional munitions with ablation shields and inertial guidance systems to strike anywhere on Earth within minutes. Putting tens of thousands of small munitions into orbit would become cost effective, by my estimate, at around $100 a kilogram. Munitions could include bunker busters, kinetic weapons, antipersonnel, incendiaries, fuel-air explosives, cluster munitions, and antitank, antiaircraft and antiship capabilities with sophisticated terminal guidance. Starship’s payload capacity promises to be so great that it will enable the deployment of much larger single munitions than today’s biggest airplanes, enabling conventional effects of a greater magnitude against even the most deeply buried targets. New kinds of strikes would become feasible. Imagine a strike package of a thousand of 200-pound bombs, each landing precisely, at the same time, on electric grid sites, government buildings, railway crossings, border stations and road intersections—without putting planes or military personnel at risk. This wouldn’t be limited by the number of available missile launchers or by the need for multiple sorties by strike aircraft. Such a system would obviate the need to establish air superiority before bringing in bombers and the need for large numbers of expensive cruise missiles." On one hand we are developing micro war devices (drones), on the other,........ https://www.wsj.com/opinion/elon-musks-starship-heavy-could-revolutionize-warfare-04930487?st=aUntwK