At first thought, it would appear that this wouldn't be suited at all as a first strike weapon. Despite the immense damage it would cause, it would not directly cripple a retaliatory strike. The U.S.'s bombers and missiles are far inland and it would only sink the nuclear subs that happened to be in port nearby.

However, it COULD be used to decapitate much of the the political "leadership" (if one were to call the Trump administration that) and also much of the military leadership if it were detonated right off of Washington D.C. In fact, assuming that it could get close enough to be used (which of course is the only way it could be useful) it would be an almost instantaneous first strike weapon. Unlike a ballistic missile launched from a sub offshore on a depressed trajectory (5 min.?) or a nuke disguised as a satellite that suddenly de-orbits (20 min.?) it would be able to wipe out its target with too little time to escape. That, coupled with a "normal" first strike that would take out the land based bombers and missiles might be enough to keep the retaliation to a minimum. Or in the words of General 'Buck' Turgidson, "10-20 million (casualties) tops. Sure (they'd) get their hair mussed but (they'd) win".

Insane? Well so is the idea of an autonomous (meaning I presume there's no way to call it back) doomsday torpedo. Sounds like one could remake "The Hunt for Red October" with just a few changes; a robotic submarine capable of ending the world (or just the coast of many large nations) is accidentally launched and it must be found and destroyed before it gets within range (or becomes sentient).

Since Russia isn't nearly as vulnerable as the U.S. from coastal attacks but seems to be way behind and falling further in space technology (thanks Elon!); why not put a big rock in the sky that, with just a little nudge, would fall down the gravity well and give a non-radioactive 100MT blast? Or, if the Russians are going to go ahead and violate the nuclear arms treaty (I'm pretty sure developing a whole new strategic nuclear weapon system is not allowed), use America's lead in new biotechnologies that could target specific regions or exact populations (I'd tell you how but probably not best to talk about such things publicly).

Yes I did, Iâ(TM)m sorry about the illegibility, I donâ(TM)t know how to fix it (other than not use some punctuation marks)

... whatever happened or is happening with the Lockheedâ(TM)s nuclear fusion project?

For those of you who didnâ(TM)t hear, 3 years ago (2014) they claimed theyâ(TM)d be able to make a nuclear fusion power plant capable of fitting in a box car/shipping container IN FIVE YEARS. I presume they mean a power plant that generates substantially more amount of electricity than it requires (Iâ(TM)ve heard that you can âoeeasilyâ make nuclear fusion happen, getting more energy out than in is the trick).

https://lppfusion.com/lockheed...

Anyway whatever happened to this game changing (civilization changing?) technology? The only reason why I didnâ(TM)t dismiss it out of hand was because it was supposedly being developed by their âoeSkunk Worksâ, makers of the F-117, SR-71 amongst other things.

So where is it?

... to its final orbit (and been commissioned and been tested and is sending back science data). And then Iâ(TM)ll worry that itâ(TM)s running out of its consumables too quickly or its gyroscopes are failing at a higher than predicted rate.

These multi-billion dollar space science projects always put me on edge, especially one like this which is so far from earth that there are no easy repair scenarios such as the one that saved Hubble. Too bad that it wonâ(TM)t be unfolded and tested in LEO (so that it would have at least the possibility of being fixed). Of course then it would probably then need an ion drive in order to (very slowly) get it to L2 because the delicate unfolded mirrors couldnâ(TM)t possibly maintain their precision with a chemical rocket.

Anyway, hereâ(TM)s hoping that Elon can bring the cost of space flight down by a factor of ten or more so a repair mission to L2 wouldnâ(TM)t be prohibitively expensive. Also if getting things to orbit werenâ(TM)t so expensive maybe a much bigger telescope (possible because it would just entail more mirror modules right?) could be sent because they wouldnâ(TM)t have to worry about shaving every gram off. The reduced constraints on weight might also allow for a more robust safer and cheaper design.

So everything will be helped out a lot by cheaper access to space! (Captain Obvious)

I seem to remember reading Hitler claimed that Poland attacked some German border posts and as proof displayed the bodies of the dead German defenders. Based on that he declared war on Poland, thus starting WWII.

Of course the dead bodies were those of executed convicts and the attacks were just set up to give him an excuse to invade.

So now Putin (I presume) is claiming an attack on Russian forces. So letâ(TM)s see who the prime mover behind all the âoeFake Newsâ in the world will decide to blame. (Trump isnâ(TM)t the prime producer, heâ(TM)s the prime consumer). Will it be the Iraqis? The Kurds? The Americans? If itâ(TM)s anyone other than ISIS, Iâ(TM)d be skeptical of what he claims

Actually if they could make a version of this for cows (and "persuade" the cows not to chew it on the way down) it might be able to retrieve some important data on their methane production.

For those who don't know, methane is a much (20x) "stronger" greenhouse gas (and that's not even counting the smell). Ruminants are supposedly a large source of the gas (and I guess leaks from oil production and distribution) and so if a way to reduce their "emissions" were found that still allowed them to digest their food that could play a small but not insignificant role in reducing climate change. Perhaps genetically engineering the microbes so that they are not so methanogenic or adding some methane consuming microbes to their intestinal flora would do the trick.

Or perhaps either 1) reducing the amount of "meat" eaten (not for me) or 2) perhaps growing the meat in tissue cultures or 3) making really good substitute "meat" using genetically engineered plants that taste like meat (through the inclusion of hemoglobin like iron associated proteins that give meat its taste).

If they really completely forgot about snow and ice they have a much more serious problem.

What about the WEIGHT of the snow and ice on the cantilevered roof with just the glass to support it?

I looked at the picture and couldn't tell how far it was extended out from the central supports but if there's a lot of snow on top that then catches rain and sleet to become a heavy thick blanket of ice, I would imagine there could be some structural issues (if it even flexes a little maybe it would cause the glass to shatter).

Any structural engineers who know this kind of construction and can shed some light on this issue?

Because theyâ(TM)ll have 100 million excess young males due to gender specific abortions.

How come I've never heard of this (and I read slashdot regularly! :)

Seriously, if this isn't an April fool's joke (it isn't April 1 according to the Chinese calendar is it?) how come this TRANSPARENT concrete isn't a much more widely known building material? I mean, something with the load bearing strength of concrete with even just translucency and not good transparency would revolutionize architecture wouldn't it?

I once read (pre-internet days) that "Architecture is Man's conquest of light" or something like that in the sense that as materials got stronger, less and less of the load bearing had to be taken up by thick walls and, with the invention of cheap glass, "glass curtain wall" skyscrapers became possible. Wouldn't this be kinda on the same level of importance as that? How come we aren't seeing building with translucent structures that literally glow at night?

If this material is strong enough and durable enough (and cheap enough!) to be used as a roadway material (and maybe resistant to temperature swings that you'd expect in a temperate country like China) I would imagine there would be many many applications. So where are they?

If this IS true, and feasible and practical, well as another poster pointed out, there is a ton of available roadway that could be used to generate electricity. At least we'll go from something that is really just receiving solar energy and converting it to heat (asphalt) to something that will generate some electricity and what's far more important, cut down on the use of carbon dioxide producing fossil fuels. Win Win!

Oops! Didn't look into OSIRIS-REx closely enough. Anyway, aren't asteroids just naked comets? :)

Speaking purely as a biotechnologist with no interest in creating world ending viruses (virii?).

Will the genetic sequences of these viruses be available on the genome databases hosted by the NIH, the NCBI? (National Center for Biological Information).

For those of you who don't know, the U.S. Govt. hosts basically all known genomic data for many many species on the NCBI in the form of complete DNA sequences. If you downloaded the sequences for some of these viruses, you could, with the help of a DNA synthesizer (about $10K-$40K), make some of them. Once injected into a suitable host, they would self-assemble into virulent particles capable of transmittal.

From what I understand, some of the newer DNA synthesizers "phone home" to tell the appropriate government agencies what you're up to. Also, perhaps there is some mechanism at the NCBI to prevent/monitor you when you attempt to download these sequences.

Of course, the problem with biological weapons is that they are notoriously hard to control, in fact the first victim(s) may very well be their creator. However for those with apocalyptic visions of paradise after death (70 virgins), that may not be a deterrent.

(it's me again, I wrote the "Pontoons comment above)

I should remind Slashdot readers that we already have a cometary probe planned, funded and soon to be launched I think: OSIRIS-rex. While I really like comets and would love to get samples back, we've (sort of) been there done that.

In a more perfect world where we didn't just raise our deficit 1.5Trillion dollars to give tax cuts to corporations (and their wealthy owners), we'd be doing both but until China gets their act together, we (and to a lesser extent the Europeans and Japanese) are the only ones doing any exploring of the solar system.

(While we're dreaming, a submersible probe to Titan would also be cool. By the way, ARE there any short wavelengths that would be transparent to the hydrocarbon seas of Titan? Otherwise, just sonar.)

It would allow it to land on the (very still) "waters" of the oceans and lakes of Titan!

Then, with its existing instrument suite or perhaps another or two, it could directly measure the characteristics of the liquids on the only other body in the solar system known to have liquids on its surface.

Perhaps a simple acoustic sounder could make depth measurements? A camera, able to "see" in wavelengths transparent to the liquid (methane?) could take undermethane photos? (Remember to correct for the different refraction index of methane!).

Wow, just wow. Of course that's assuming there's no "Titanic" Kraken that'll gobble it up. But that would be the same as what the project investigator said about trees on Titan: "... the cameras will, during the descent, hopefully prevent to octo-copter from crashing into a tree. But if it does crash into a tree, we win! :)" (because the camera will presumably be transmitting live pictures).

Pontoons (should be) pretty light so hopefully mass isn't a problem. If volume is a problem, make them "inflatable" (of course this adds risk and complexity though).

*I think it's an octo-copter with 8 rotors around 4 hubs.