Codene is actually the stereoisomer of heroin, but it doesn't fit most of our receptors so appears mostly inert.
Codeine and heroin are not stereoisomers. They have similar morphine-based structures, but not the same composition. Methylmorphine (codeine) is C18H21NO3. Diacetylmorphine (heroin) is C21H23NO5.
The more famous example is thalidomide. One isomer causes birth defects. The other is effective at countering morning sickness.
So, is it an M-Class planet or not?
The Star-Trek planet classifications are useless. They confuse too many independent variables into one label, and don't cover all the possible combinations. You can't even make Uranus and Neptune fit them. If we looked at an Earth from an alternate timeline where life never started, the planet would not fit into any of the Star Trek classes.
If you want, we can say that Gliese 581 e is too close to its star for liquid water to exist, and thus rules out Class M.
However, take Gliese 581 d. Unless it already has life to put oxygen in the atmosphere, d has no Star Trek planet class. But if the hypothesis that it is low density is right, and it possesses an atmosphere with a greenhouse effect, then it's waiting for us to waltz over and start terraforming.
I call it "game theory politics." Namely, preserve people's rights to the utmost practical limit, and have government only involve itself in programs that would otherwise fail due to game theory considerations.
This is genius - and I have been thinking along the same lines but didn't articulate it quite as well.
Is this when one says the "newsletter"-thing? I didn't quite catch up to that meme.
While it is often used sarcastically, this would be an appropriate genuine use. As it so happens, his ideas are also intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to his newsletter.
I highly doubt they will be transporting the heat directly.
The article says "district heat". That means they are transporting the heat directly as a utility. It's a somewhat common setup in much of Europe.
I assume this was meant as a joke, but seriously, if you were able to take out a large portion of the power grid for any sustained length of time, it would have a huge economic impact. Just from the loss of money while businesses and industries are unable to function would add up to millions, if not billions. That's not even counting the looting and rioting (come on, you know it would happen!)
Define sustained. Storm-related outages lasting a week or more are not rare, and do not lead to riots or widespread looting. This idea that power outages equal riots seems to stem from the 1977 NYC blackout, but that was a match in a fireworks factory. Most outages are just a bloody nuisance.
If a bear craps in a virtual forest, and there is nobody to hear him break wind, can you see the Pope from there?
Only if the Pope is clapping with one hand while tying buttered toast to the back of Schroedinger's cat.
So in theory not only could this plane get itself up into space, but it could refuel itself on the ground as well? I don't see how adding a few onboard air compressors for ground-based refueling would hurt.
You know it doesn't run on air alone, right? It's not going to be able to make its own hydrogen. The Skylon can no more refuel itself on the ground than a conventional aircraft can.
Space exploration is hard, very hard. You might think that your job is hard, but it is just a simple high school assembly project compared to space exploration.
I'm sorry, but after reading that all I could do is wonder when the style would settle down a bit and start telling me things I really need to know.
Never lose sight of the ultimate goal: eliminate scarcity. Pointless make-work jobs are a bug, not a feature.
What the f--k are you smoking and where can I get some?
If you eliminate scarcity, then why should anyone work? For the benefit of society? If you eliminate scarcity, the entire economic system collapses. I mean, really, good luck, but someone else already tried that.
You're kidding, right? Shortages and rationing are the manifestation of scarcity, not its absence.
I get the impression that you're not really grasping the idea of a world with no scarcity. It doesn't exist, but maybe it could.
If you successfully eliminate scarcity the economic system becomes largely irrelevant. If there is no scarcity in food production, there is no reason to stop every man, woman, and child from walking home with as much steak as they can carry. If there is no scarcity in automobile production, everyone can drive a Maserati. In a post-scarcity world, supply is essentially infinite, thus the price is zero.
Well, if we keep finding new ways to encode information and to engage in computation, it's conceivable that someday, everything in the universe could be used for computing.
And we can use it to answer The Last Question.
Besides a Corgi has many times the personality of Keanu Reeves and is in serious danger of up-staging the main actor.
There's a serious danger that the set furniture will upstage Keanu Reeves.
I believe he was also Gutierrez in the Freakazoid series.
Roddy MacStew: At least let the boy go!
Gutierrez: No.
Roddy MacStew: Why not?
Gutierrez: Because he tasks me! He *tasks* me! Around the moons of Vega, I chuckle at thee. Around the suns of Andromeda, I chuckle more at thee. Revenge is a dish best served with pinto beans and muffins! Kirk, oh, friend, I... Oh!
[fixes tie]
Gutierrez: I'm sorry...
The other major names on his economic team are Reagan CEA member Lawrence Summers and Reagan Fed Charman Paul Volcker
Note that Volcker was first appointed by Carter.
Yet, it has been the few, the daring to be different, not the ones feeling safe in the crowd, that have contributed the most to major knowledge in the early history of experimental and observational science.
Other early scientists, such as Kepler, Copernicus, Pasteur and others also had to fight the majority status quo establishment, but were finally, after a long uphill battle proven to be right.
"The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." -- attributed to Carl Sagan
Somebody has not explained relevant arguments to you.
The geologic timescale is irrelevant as the context here is implicitly the human timescale. This earthquake swarm does not indicate an eruption in the lifetime of any person now living.
(the bad news being that it doesn't indicate that it won't erupt either)
The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch someone else doing it wrong, without commenting. -- T.H. White
