Posts by Bleu

Re: I haven't read this, but

Corrections:

'... the hard SF side of mundane science fiction ...'

and

'... technobabble to create the illusion of hard-SF elements.'

... to be ctd.

Re: AC Offensive

Matt.

There are no rape charges. Assange is not my hero, but it is clear that the Swedish prosecutor's intention is just to make trouble for him.

Re: Oh dear...

When is the world tour of Stonehenge to start? Will the stones be earthbound?

Re: Presumably the sculpture is quite large to allow for actual size ego.

You are making a good point and without ill-humour. ... but Assange has been trapped in the embassy for over two years. They seem to have house-trained him a little, to their credit.

Still, no matter how much of an egomaniac he is, he doesn't deserve the situation.

The chief justice minister of the UK tried to resolve the situation only a few weeks ago, begging the Swedish moron prosecutor to interview Assange in the embassy, the request was predictably refused.

Re: Standing on chairs??

Manning was a soldier, I appreciate the blown whistle, but am not too sure about the ethics of it.

In the end, it was a betrayal of the service. I hope the prison sentence is shortened, but I would not have dreamt of such a thing when in uniform. Keeping things in-house is part of the contract.

I feel uncomfortable to think of it, it is a real ethical dilemma, I think Manning was right to release the video that became 'collateral murder', but as a soldier in uniform ...?

Wikileaks is still sitting on most of what they have, much that they have will never be released, but Domsc***t may be the most responsible there, for wiping files and handing them to Bundeswhatever.

You, Tasker, are right about Wikileaks sort of exploiting Manning.

I like the tale of Mr. Snowden, exploited by many journalists, now has work and a new home, reunion with his girlfriend, I was so happy to hear the latter.

Re: More to this story

Hey, we are not all American here, please be aware of that, but you get a vote from me for a cogent description of what is wrong with Orion for your put-upon taxpayers!

Re: I wonder

Good points, but they did use 'chutes for an important part of Curiosity's wonderful landing sequence.

Re: Sorry, I can't get excited about NASA's 'new' 1960's Mercury/Gemini/Apollo Space Program v2.0

From reading, I always had the impression that NASA was ordered to stop the extra-terrestrial flights with crews at Apollo 17 ... a looong time ago.

Shuttle was an interesting failure.

US govt should refit the X-37b for piloted flights with two or three aboard, instead of whatever war-games they have it playing now. That would make for a very affordable and re-usable lift to orbit.

Re: @ Mainlanders @Uffish - Oops

Still not a bad song, hey!

As for the units, I would say 'much hotter than a kettle that's come to the boil, and from a height of about 60,000 soccer pitches'.

It is still just an over-priced tax extravaganza for now. No big impressive show. Nobody aboard, they likely can't even do that if they want at this stage.

Re: Precisely how

Alright, I read it in detail. Some interesting ideas, seems very reliant on tech. copied from the USSR and Russia via the ISS.

Today's most interesting aerospace news is that Russia is going to pull the plug on ISS participation in 2020, and will use the modules that are currently in production for it as the basis for a new station in a higher orbit.

I only checked the Reg. tonight because I thought they might have a story about it.

I am sure that the fliers all get along most of the time, but with the economic war on the ground, it's no wonder that they want to put a limit on US exploitation of their space tech.

What a shame.

Re: Precisely how

Well, obviously. Thanks for the link, I will look at it. My point is that this craft is being marketed as the rocket to Mars, and that is bullshit.

Again, thanks for the link.

Re: 'over 50 years after it managed to make human footprints on the Moon. '.....The End.

I am very curious about the Roscosmos offer to launch an Apollo 8 style circumlunar tour on Soyuz.

Not heard of lately but it was real.

There are many obscenely wealthy people who had the ability to pay, a few paid many millions of US dollars to be on the ISS, why did none of the obscenely rich take up the circumlunar offering from Roskosmos? AFAIK, is no longer on offer, why is that?

It is interesting on many levels.

Downvote for a simple statement of fact.

That is pathetic, the reg. seems to be suffering from a surfeit of dummy-spitters.

Speaking of Ballard

perhaps JG should be in the running.

You should also check the list.

My initial reaction was the same, but they seem to have made pretty good choices.

Amusing but

they are not calling for names of fictional characters.

Since CO2 is

the main component of our atmosphere, it would be difficult for you Earthlings to *not* detect it.

Re: Of course it can fly

You are unlikely to see more of the galaxy, except through a telescope and in photos, you can buy a suborbital flight on an old but fast fighter jet in Russia for not much more than ten thousand euros.

If you are out of your teens and not on the path already, like me, you will never be an astronaut.

Re: The reason Orion was nearly scrapped ...

Your post has good points but also many silly ones.

The point of participating in the ISS, to the US government and NASA bureaucrats, is to leach techniques that the Russians learnt, in USSR days on Salyut, for long terms in free-fall.

The record-holder went blind.

Re: USA commitment to ISS

I don't know why anyone would pay much attention to proclamations from POTUS, but thanks for the info, next one can easily revoke it, of course.

I wonder if the USA wanted to make it mainly burn up (bits would hit) before people in the other participating countries wanted, would the space agencies involved rebel?

Since and before the demise of the space shuttle as a people-delivery mechanism, the US and NASA have been enjoying a free ride on a platform where most parts were made by others, leaching off hard-earned soviet knowledge in particular about life in LEO.

Re: The reason Orion was nearly scrapped ...

The main reason it was nearly scrapped was a decision from Obama to abolish NASA's 'return to the moon soon' programme, a Bush II policy.

Ugly machismo after the second shuttle explosion in response to having to rely on the Soyuz for going to the ISS was another.

I doubt that people within NASA who support manned spaceflight support the ludicrous expense of Lockheed developing the Orion capsule with no defined mission for it to support, except perhaps a few flights to the ISS.

The 380 million dollar price must surely be for this mission alone, and not include the mega-handouts Lockheed has received for development, hell, it probably also excludes the costs of the launch vehicles (which should always be at least recoverable and materials recyclable, bet they will not be on this), ground facilities, and fuel.

Re: Looking at that picture....

... as is your post, but silly enough to get a laugh and a vote out of me.

Re: Jack of all trades?

They won't do anything as sensible as assembly at the ISS because the US is too intent on making trouble, the ISS will likely be down before 2020. The last I heard, the schedule was to bring it down next year, but clearer heads seem to have prevailed since then. Haven't seen talk of a 2015 scrapping lately.

Re: A Recommend

I agree, only saw Primer once at the cinema, want to see it again, think I understood the time-travel part, but did not fully understand the last twenty or so minutes.

Impressions were great.

Are you truly sure that the whole plot has a logical explanation?

Suppose I will have to track it down (with difficulty) and (with pleasure) watch it again.

I will posit the rom-com Time after Time as the all-time prize turkey of time-travel films. For sure, someone must know of an even worse example! Yet another criminal waste of McDowall.

That reminds me, my concentration only lasted about twenty minutes, but the remake of The Time Machine was truly execrable. Recalling it, that is now my nomimation for prize turkey, at least the rom-com part of Time after Time worked a little.