Marks for creativity
"Although we respect that the commenters’ concerns are genuinely held," the filing notes, "there is no factual basis for them."
What a super polite way of calling someone an idiot.
Large balloons firing data are nothing to worry about, Google has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in its latest license application. The people behind Project Loon, Google’s floating internet platform announced in June 2013, have successfully tested the system across the world and now want the silver machines …
Google has answered that in detail:
https://www.google.com/loon/how/
Basically, they use data about atmospheric conditions that they collect themselves from their balloon swarm, combined with other sources like NOAA. That data is used when adjusting altitudes to catch different wind-streams, allowing them reasonable accuracy when moving the balloons where they'd like. With enough balloons, they can keep an area well covered.
"They start off at ground level, or didn't you realise that?" --- Pompous Git
If they climb like normal weather balloons, at about 5m/s, they'll be out of range of all but the sniper sights of sober sharpshooters within a few minutes. As we are talking about a 100 day lifespan, they'll be spending (coming down as well as up) well under 0.0001% of their lifespan within projectile range. Even less if they are launched at night, without notice, from an area with a reasonable perimeter.
So, yes, I did realise they start off at ground level but they are hardly more vulnerable to drunken shooters than if they were launched out of planes or magically spawned in mid-air.
Since then the FCC has been receiving complaints about the plan, largely it seems from people worried about radio frequency (RF) exposure.
Oh noes! The sky's falling in; the sky's falling in! And it really, really is this time!
Presumably they don't actually use a mobile phone, possess a TV or a PC. A CD player? God forbid! A wind-up gramophone with gorse needle in the pickup's bad enough. Gorse is going to become a threatened species real soon now because of climate change and sin! Sin I tell you!
Worldwide, there are over 800 upper-air observation stations and through international agreements data are exchanged between countries. Most upper air stations are located in the Northern Hemisphere and all observations are usually taken at the same time each day (up to an hour before 00:00 and/or 12:00 UTC), 365 days a year. When severe weather is expected additional soundings may be taken at a select number of stations. NWS [US National Weather Service] takes observations at 92 stations; 69 in the conterminous United States, 13 in Alaska, 9 in the Pacific, and 1 in Puerto Rico. NWS also supports the operation of 10 other stations in the Caribbean.
That's about 70,000 a year in the USA. And nobody noticed the danger until Google decided to deploy a few. FFS!
http://www.ua.nws.noaa.gov/factsheet.htm
Yes you are for your use of the three dollar word 'conterminous' in place of the correct and accepted word 'contiguous'. As adjectives the difference between conterminous and contiguous is that conterminous is meeting end-to-end or at the ends while contiguous is connected; touching; abutting. So spit out that thesaurus before you gag on it. By the way, I do respect many of your other opinions expressed in many other threads, and your point here is well taken.
your use of the three dollar word 'conterminous' in place of the correct and accepted word 'contiguous'.
Doncha love it when someone says: "I do respect many of your other opinions"? Why do you take me to task for what someone else wrote? Or do you really believe that NOAA employees consist of retirees living in southern Tasmania? Here's the final line of my post so you can follow this up with them what wrote it!
http://www.ua.nws.noaa.gov/factsheet.htm
PS While I could have corrected the grammar in that "factsheet", I'm only a grammar nazi with publications I work on.
I forgot to add there was a clue that the writing you referenced wasn't the Git's. I (almost) always place quoted text between blockquote tags so it's obvious I'm quoting. Admittedly the Reg stylesheet only indents the blockquote, rather than also changing the typeface and/or background colour so it's not as obvious as it could be.
Americans pay through the nose for mobile access
Do we? I pay around $40 a month for unlimited calls and SMS and 5 GB of data (which is far, far more than I ever use) on a major national network. That's about 60% of the bill for my landline, which only offers free calls in my local area. Or about 60% of the cost of sending one 10-word telegram a day in 1920, adjusted for inflation.
Seems like a pretty good deal to me.