This darn thing only allows for a 60M rise. I want to try out 1000M and set sail in a Trimaran.

forced to reduce the size of their army and actually feed their own people

Don't think that it would have this effect... NK has been generally starving the people for decades in favor of military might.

The part about IT is not the problem. The issue is that you need to learn to make presentations. Take up public speaking. There are several ways to acquire this kind of skill. I suggest Toastmasters as an inexpensive route. Not instantaneous, but in a year or two you can do well.

They're just hoping to get a better class of criminals.

His point was not that there was nothing else available, but that there was nothing else available that would economically produce the quantities of energy. Methane and such like don't scale that well.

I should say that ESRI is Google's big competitor in the MAPS field. Don't do much in Google's other areas.

Bogus. Google's big competition in the States is ESRI, with their ArcGIS products. ESRI also has a free version that provides users limited functionality, and they also have a version that users pay a boat load of money for... for a LOT more functionality.

As another user pointed out, Google is not alone in this space. If Bottin has a better product, they will be able to make money with it. If all they have is a bare bones, basic map service, they are going to have a hard time to convince me.

$10K/lb was the going rate for using the shuttle, which was a massively overpriced boondoggle from the day it was planned. I think that you can shop for launch costs in the $2K/lb range without too much difficulty.

That being said, $2K/lb is still much more expensive than it should be. The actual energy per pound to low orbit is only a few bucks, assuming it were delivered from your local power plant. The problem is that you have to drag along the rocket... and the fuel to get the rocket the last 10 miles into orbit... and the fuel to get the rocket and that fuel the next to last 10 miles, etc.

It would be so much easier if we just had a sky hook.

Cheapest economic solution that would also reduce man's carbon footprint would be to eliminate 99% of people. 100% would fix the problem permanently.

I know its been done before, but that has never stopped Hollywood...