Posts by Miles Dyson

Re: Um, this is ridiculously illegal

Um, you have no idea what you are talking about. Were they saying, "you must have autism to work here" then they would be in trouble, but they are not doing that. They are not requesting any potential hires to state their disability; they are opening additional, optional interview paths that might be less biased against disabled. Autistic people are welcome to go through the standard hiring procedures and not mention their disability. It's not like existence of a wheelchair ramp forbids you from struggling up the stairs if that's what you really want to do.

Also, everyone knows that autistic people are not all genius, and you are either being disingenuous (or stupid?) to imply that Microsoft is not aware of this. They are merely broadening their hiring pool by removing some of the arbitrary, and therefore ultimately inefficient, ways that potentially useful hires are eliminated by routine interview procedures.

Re: Three Amigos

"And that's why you, Mr AC haven't been upvoted. People who know enough history are very wary of assuming it isn't.

US history suggests that there's always some medical situation where "We have to know the consequences" trumps little things like informed consent."

I think you need to re-phrase your comment to: "People who cherry-pick history to support their stupid prejudices are very wary of...". By your logic, I suppose we should also assume that Spain is still plundering gold from Latin American and Germany is still using Jews as human guinea pigs, but only now have somehow figured out a way to keep these remarkably secret? I'm waiting for some more cherry-picking which will clearly demonstrate why skeletons in US history are still relevant while those of other countries are not. Of course, you could also just stick to criticizing things the US is doing wrong in the contemporary real world rather than creating a stupid fantasy world.

Re: Cooling

@Petalium - It is the current moving through the conductive projectile (or possibly a sabot or armature holding a projectile) that generates the Lorentz force that it propels along the rails, and that it why contact is necessary. A coilgun does not need contact with a magnetic projectile to accelerate it, but they have other limitations and would likely need much longer barrels to obtain the performance that has been demonstrated by rail guns.

Re: Bollocks

So TDog, you created an account yesterday to call bollocks on the conservation of momentum? Rocket science may not play much part in your future, but on the bright side, your failure to understand this basic physics concept won't be a hurdle should you ever apply for editor of New Scientist.

By the way, NASA has been using SI units for decades, the mph is for the benefit of the American press. And regarding the Mars craft you refer to, NASA was consistently using SI; it was Lockheed that ignored the metric units specified in the contract and thereby destroyed the orbiter.

>Guarantee this could be done quite easily. <1 meter precision without breaking a sweat.

Not easily at all. <1 meter precision requires a terminal guidance precision that is quite difficult when the reentry vehicle of an IBCM is moving around 25,000 kph and sheathed in plasma. For Prompt Global Strike, Tridents with GPS terminal guidance were proposed that were expected to obtain an accuracy of about 10 m (down from the 100 m or so of the nuclear variety that cannot rely on GPS, for obvious reasons). Incidentally, the comment you were responding to was incorrect in the assessment that the missiles would need to be "at least as accurate as current precision munitions"- a projectile can afford to be slightly less accurate when it has an impact speed of Mach 17.

*Shorter-range quasi-ballistic missiles, moving at something more like 8000 kph, should be easier to maneuver in atmosphere, but there are theatre-class weapons only, so aren't much use for a "global strike".