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Comment How to fix hunger in Africa? (Score 1) 592

I know this is politically sensitive. I am NOT trying to be a troll. I just want to be practical.

The solution is: Birth Control.
More practically, the solution is alleviating the need to have a large family.

Look at the countries that are on the top of this list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_by_birth_rate

This is REALLY simple folks. You want to have a MASSIVE famine? Step 1 is have a lot of babies.

Comment Actually answering the question. (Score 1) 262

With room temp super conductors the reduced i^2-r heat is nice.

But copper is pretty cheap. That room temp super conductor would have to have quite a low price tag on it to replace copper transmission lines. So I doubt electrical-$ losses would drive users to adopt it.

There are situations where the i^2-r heat makes choices for you. Being liberated from those decisions, is most likely the place where you would see i^2-r loss elimination decisions. CPUs and other compact electronics comes to mind.

But, that is just an incremental change. A few more Ghz on your processor at best.

The thing that is REALLY novel about super-conductors is the Meisiner effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meissner_effect

Imagine a floating table.
Imagine a floating bed.
Imagine a floating car lift at a service station. turn the heater on, it drops to the ground, drive the car onto it, pour cold water on it, and up the car goes.

Comment I'm an Engineer. (Score 1) 756

I push the seat as far back as I can and still have full reach of the controls. I put on all the belts they give me. I pull them snug.

I'm also a bad driver, I've been in several medium severity accidents, and I can tell you first hand, the more physically secure you are, the better. And having your legs straight-ish means they flop around less in an accident. When an accident occurs, your strength means NOTHING. You WILL flop around like a rag doll.

Oh, and I'm a 9-3 guy, generally a 3-only guy. The hot gas from the air bags have burned me, but I've never directly contacted inflated airbags.

Be careful out there, I might be driving down your road some day. :)

Comment when to do it. (Score 1) 412

The time to change this thing's movement is 2023. The time to start planning the mission is 2018. You don't need anything all that complicated, an 55 gallon drum full of shiny aluminum paint ought to be enough to fix the problem. Either that, or black paint. It would take a lander and a super-low-velocity sprayer.

Comment Re:Seems I'm always contrary. Well here goes again (Score 1) 212

The reason why I brought up Fermat's Theorem, is that very well argued explanations of what we can't figure-out or do, supplied by very highly credentialed persons, has not been a barrier to actually solving problems. Fermat's is an example of something, that was generally felt to be unsolvable, for centuries, but then was later solved in a way that you could almost call kinda simple.

Making 100s of important problems into what is kinda 1 problem, is the first step in solving 100s of problems all at once.

Considering your argument, if I could turn the 100s of NP-hard problems into something that could be explained to a computer as one problem. I could run an algorithm against it, and from time to time, get marginally better results. Until, I just didn't care about the results being better. Once that is achieved, for me, the problem is solved. Once, most people just don't care about the slightly better results, it has been generally solved.

can't be solved, phish posh.

still being contrary, I suppose.

Comment Seems I'm always contrary. Well here goes again. (Score 1) 212

So the article said that NP problems are all part of one family of problems or just different forms of the same problem. It further says that because these problems are 'hard' they can't be solved by computers. I must say, my gut instinct is that turning this many problems, and problems of this level of importance into one problems is the first step in solving all of them at once. oh, and before you tell me about how we can't see how anyone would really solve the 'NP-hard', first tell me how your so much more clever than the people who told us we would probably never solve this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_Last_Theorem

ok.

Comment Fairly standard and illegal. (Score 1) 238

INAL, but;

Giving away free content/service/etc to put competitors out of business and then charging once you have a monopoly is fairly common. And its not allowed. Its not allowed in the U.S. It is an illegal practice banned under the monopolies law; and it has been banned for like 135yrs.

Proving someone has done this, in common law U.S. Well, that's another story entirely. Proving it in France? Well there system is a little different, they can concentrate on effects of acts more and spend less time divining intent. France, is the right place to bring this complaint.

Comment Re:22 light years (Score 1) 288

most near-light designs have the ship being powered from earth btw. I.e. the earth hits the ship with a laser and a mirror on the ship gets momentum from the laser. The issue isn't fuel, its focus and range.

If you could make singularities, then a 'romulan' type drive would be possible and you could use interstellar gas as fuel.

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