The results say this is generating orders of magnitude more thrust than could be explained by radiation pressure (which is what you are describing.) It may contribute a little bit, but cannot explain the results.

Most of those are governments... Maybe you are hoping SpaceX will make this a priority as a non income generating research project? If not, I think there is an important life lesson about the speed at which government agencies and their contractors accomplish tasks in your future.

With five years is more likely, assuming a better explanation which makes it useless as propulsion is not found. Maybe within a year if it gets the attention of those who create the budget.

The fact that the anomalous readings are net thrust is pretty encouraging.

Launching things into space is expensive, devices intended for space are harder to design, and it makes the experiment harder to run and measure. Better to run some tests on the ground first, produce a model on which they can base a more efficient design, test that design in order to maximize the thrust they can easily get, then go design an actual test spacecraft (which will probably be tiny, and take some time to do.)

A series of promising results on the ground are a good sign, and are what make it worthy of the further work and expense necessary to test it in the intended environment. I am sure someone will get around to launching a test vehicle in due time if nobody comes up with a better explanation for the results than generation of thrust.

If I remember correctly they oriented the first one (in atmosphere) in several different directions during the test in order to rule this out.

Their measured force is far greater than radiation pressure could explain (around 1 newton /kW now, expected to be 500-1000 newtons per kW with some refinement if their current theories are correct), and it was not tested in sunlight as far as I know.

It cannot be simple radiation pressure, of this NASA is certain.

That is pretty close to what is going on.

There are now several experiments which confirm the production of thrust, many efforts to falsify the results, and a few efforts to come up with a theory which explains what we are seeing. There may be another test or two on the ground, but the first real space trial is likely coming soon. The only real way to be sure is to launch one and measure the dv.

I had the same thought they did initially, which is that convection of air was responsible for their thrust. That will not happen in vacuum, so that idea is right out.

This is a very promising experimental result, following several other very promising experimental results from different labs. I would say there is now serious evidence that this works, or at least that there is more to it than we can easily explain given our current understanding of physics.

Public opinion these days is that discrimination against a person based on attributes which cannot easily be changed is a problem.

A person may hate anybody they want, but as CEO he was the face of their business. If their CEO had spoken out on the wrong side during the civil rights movement he would also face some social issues. That is probably the closest analogy to what is currently happening with homosexuality. I expect the social consequences of speaking out in favor of discrimination to become increasingly negative.

The main difference between "defending traditional marriage" and supporting same sex marriage is that the former is attempting to restrict the actions of another person based on an attribute they cannot change. In this case it harms nobody to allow two consenting adults to marry each other, so it is difficult to come up with a valid reason to deny them access to the same government processes and protections which a heterosexual couple would be able to legally enjoy.

Separate but equal is also generally accepted to rarely be equal, so marriage it is.

I really do not care much either, as being a heterosexual white male most discrimination does not affect me. Despite that, I do see how unfair it is to deny this to somebody based upon who they love.

If he got his way and gay marriage was entirely banned, it would not affect him at all (presumably he would not consent to marry another man.) He is trying to restrict the freedom of others because he does not approve of who they are, and I do have serious objections to placing that kind of person in a position of power (even at a private organization.)

This is pretty much a textbook case of extortion, specifically blackmail.

He made a business out of continuing to publish embarrassing and socially damaging imagery until he was paid off. Publishing the images alone would have been a grey area at the time he did it, but the extortion site is definitely illegal.

If Google started a service where they dug up dirt on people then contacted them to get a payment in order to make the problem go away, their representatives would absolutely be hauled into court. Google knows better than to try of course.

It does not make less sense, you can still badly injure those around you.

It is very easy to decide commercial use: Did you derive any revenue (not necessarily profit) at all. If yes? Commercial use.

They are much better at finding those who commit very serious crimes, and bringing a helicopter down over a city is extremely serious.

This is one of those situations where almost anybody who would be capable of committing the crime and having any real shot of getting away with it also has better options in life.

That ignores the not so minor point that if you take a helicopter down the response will be extreme.

That one helicopter is not the only thing the state can bring to bear against you, and they will be very pissed off. In short, it would need to be a case of much of the city revolting before that becomes the kind of thing you might get away with.

We can already see the point we call the big bang, it is known as the Cosmic Microwave Background.

My gf and I looked at it on the same screen.

My answer was periwinkle and brown for the image, but I thought the real dress was probably blue and black. She says white and gold.

I had to spend a moment looking at the background to determine that it was probably blue and black.

The thing is that audio is generally not entirely digital.

I have had computers where moving the mouse produced a specific sound through the headphones. Most are better these days, but shielding the analog components and wires, and generally reducing noise components make can have an impact.

If you are amplifying it this will also amplify your noise, which is an easy way to make it noticeable.

Not true, the idea is to get enough kinetic energy into a solid projectile to produce the same effect as an explosive when it hits.