usual... someone who is doing well says "too bad, life is tough, you gotta work hard, etc." but when someone else does it better, they scream, "unfair!"

Interesting article today as I watched PBS program on savannah wildlife which they showed a ant-eater (or similar animal) digging into a termite mound. With its long tongue scooping up number of termites and narrator saying termites are very high concentration of nutrition so makes a great meal for the ant-eater. However, for me eating insects is really gross. It has been said insect meal is much more energy efficient and less prone to transmittting diseases as they are lower in the food chain. This can be debated as others pointed out earlier many insects carry significant disease, maybe it depends on what kind of insect to eat like plants. Some are very edible while others are highly poisonous.

Going back to the PBS program, the ant-eater must have scooped up a few thousand termites but with a total population of million(s) that is insignificant. And the queen termite delivering eggs at one every three seconds. They also showed organization of the termite mound. Huge queen termite serviced by many transporting eggs to various locations, soldier termites constantly on duty, many others performing tasks to continue expanding the mound. Like an ant colony or a bee's nest, socialism rules! Except when a capitalistic creature like the ant-eater wrecks havoc.

yes. back in 20th century they showed old movies on TV which was a huge timepit for me. Now 13% in 21st century, youtube is my huge timepit.

i.e. from the line in the movie "Dr. Strangelove" of something like "...it's all about lust if you keep it a secret. Why did you keep it a secret!?!?" while asking the Soviet ambassador who replied, "Premier was going to announce it at Party Conference, as you know he likes surprises." I cannot recall the exact conversation from the movie.

Or something like that... Kubrick did a lot of research of politicos and technology of the time which much shown in movie has a realistic resonance. Soviet doomsday machine that was proposed but Kruschev (sp?) cancelled the program, "bomb 'em back the stone age" general, and illustrating B52 weapons systems (there are several steps and procedures to ready a nuclear bomb, they don't have readouts that tell you when exactly it will explode). This 1964 film also illustrates the psychology of various people with nuclear weapons.

don't know why so many complaints. OK so has been done before, but I haven't seen such video before. However, this package was "lucky" to get good shots (camera could have been pointing mostly at side of another box or at a wall). probably too risky to try in countries like US, China, or Russia as this can get certain attention from authorities you don't want to have.

And have good interaction but not too much interservice rivalry. I imagine military leaders constantly study and exercise this trying to identify foibles that can cripple an entire force. There's lots of examples since beginning of time of what worked and what didn't work.

There was a documentary which the factious comment,
Navy says you cannot win the next war unless you command the seas.
Air Force says you cannot win the next war unless you command the skies.
Army says you cannot win the next war unless you have ground forces in command.
Marines say, "We don't care how the next war is won but it can't be done without an amphibous landing!"

Somewhat surprised to see such an article years after BSG remake was shown. My impression of first episode was I thought if we were to go into major war with one of our major business partners, our forces probably suffer something like this. Regarding the show, Galactica survived and was able to carry out counter attacks because Adama is an old guy sticking with archaic systems, you know those DEC computers and Mocom-70 2-way radios are tough stuff! None of it is networked and hardware itself is housed in solid steel containers.

perhaps international policies to prevent a "tragedy of the commons."

Al Stern at SETIcon II said these suborbital flights have generated interests among certain researchers because cost is reasonable and researchers themselves can fly and conduct the experiment. Some sub-orbitals flights might be too low and others get to that sweet spot. Stern also made some mention about sub-orbital flights into areas where meteors break-up which seems to imply gather samples. Although this can be done by remote control, Al Stern says look at university professors, they go to the basement themselves to conduct the experiment (or get a grad student). They do space things by remote because there is no other choice. He mentioned some other stuff (I cannot precisely remember it all) and was quite enthusiastic about commercial space.

Get the DVD, "Commercial Space and Suborbital Science - Wave of the Future, $10.00, featuring Alan Stern, Peter Jenniskens, Ariel Waldman, David Knight. Moderated by Franck Marchis." at http://seticon.com/products/#category=saturday

Also back in 1980, middle class income people were able to purchase houses in places which nowadays they cannot.

Going through some old website bookmarks, I found this comment about private groups instead of govt going to Mars from imipak (edited below to show key point) and I have agreement with this. It seems setting up infrastructure to mine asteroids by governments seems logical but others think private industry should lead the way. Maybe there are holes in this comment but it does raise discussion regarding who will send a person to Mars, of if current NASA plans to retrieve an asteroid are squelched by budget cutters. Link of original posting below.

"The added twist in the tale that was missed is that Werner von Braun quit NASA because of the direction it was going. "

"The Russian space shuttle... died from funding starvation due to idiotic arms races."

"This is not the way to run a space program and really does demonstrate that neither side has any real interest in such a program except as it furthers their military objectives. Us British are no better - the rocket program and the HOTOL program were both scrapped by hostile governments."

"I have thought for some time that if there were to be a manned mission to Mars, it would be by a mix of enthusiasts and academia, not by governments or corporations. At this point, I'm more certain than ever that my prognosis is correct."

from http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/13/yuri-gagarin-first-space-korolev#start-of-comments

Imagine a super highway, six lanes wide, will never again be a traffic jam, and it will be beautiful!

heh, I was talking with someone, Japanese-American, and she remembered way back when the Germans complained, "US takes our first-class scientists, Soviets take our second-class scientists, and we're stuck with third-class scientists!"

Many police depts use "open radios" easily received by common scanners. Main reason is 2-way radios are simple, the sets last years and don't require endless software upgrades to upgrade in order to meet the next upgrade (but companies such as the Big M don't like that). When time to talk, you grab the mic and talk. Dispatch can readily receive transmission (audio quality is excellent), other units can hear same transmissions (i.e. "I'm in same area, I can respond") or other depts can easily receive and/or switch to a mutual aid frequency and exchange info without having to log in, etc. Of course there are times when info needs encryption. Many transmissions such as responding to disruptive person at a store, large party getting out of hand, fight over a traffic accident, etc. doesn't need encryption! And encrytion systems are ***expensive*** plus all this new 700 MHz digital trunking using proprietary methods is really expensive, i.e. handheld radios running into $$$thousands$$$ and that ain't counting the mobiles plus additional repeater sites needed all running proprietary software. More money all when cities are laying off cops and firemen.

I know cellphones are hackable, but then others you cannot. Plus recent rants of "Unlock a phone, go to jail!" and other mischief, plus all those EULAs. It gets mysterious and raises questions of do you really own that phone? Any two-way radio I purchased I did not have to sign anything, except credit card to the seller.