Steam has a handful of the old LucasArts games. A quick search popped up an adventure pack: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/2102/

How are you going to get the mass of the propellant into LEO? For every pound of payload (which in this case, includes the propellant to go from LEO to an escape trajectory from the solar system) it's something like 50 times as much propellant you need. So even if the propellant you needed was only 10% of what you needed to get into LEO, you would still need a launch vehicle that has 5 times as much propellant.

Hand-waving the time issue away is a big reach as well. Good luck getting anyone to spend a significant amount of money now for something that may pay off in 30-40 years.

IINAP (and I'm guessing you're not, either). I used to think of things like this and say, "gosh, couldn't this be the explanation?" Then I remember that there are thousands of experts in the field, and it is extremely improbable that me, a layperson in the field, has thought of something -- especially something relatively (pun intended) simple -- that an expert hasn't thought of and obviously debunked (because we would have read about it were it plausible).

That said, I don't understand the physics behind gravity wells and their relation to time dilation very well, so I would be interested to hear from one of the aforementioned experts why it's not as simple as Taibhsear has made it sound!

I believe you tried to make a joke involving something that earns interest, but that too is "principal". Unless your misuse of principle/principal was part of a double joke...

Hogwash! Multiply by 1/2 or divide by 1/2, and now the problem is reversed!

Using force = mass * acceleration, energy = force * distance, distance = 1/2 * acceleration * time^2, and e=mc^2:
to accelerate a 1000kg payload at 1g (9.8m/s^2) for 1 year:
Energy to do so: 4.8 x 10^19 J
Equivalent mass of that energy: 532kg. That's also assuming Newtonian physics (no relativity), and not counting the fact that you have to account for the mass of the fuel. Let me know when we can produce 216kg of antimatter and then "burn" it in a controlled manner that directly corresponds to thrust.

If you use an energy density of 50,000 Wh/kg (very aggressive estimate of high-end energy density in current/near-future rocket tech), you're talking about needing over 2 billion metric tons of fuel (and don't forget you have to accelerate all that fuel too which now means you're no longer talking about a 1000kg payload.

In your simple case, is there any reason to upgrade to a version of MW that implements LUA for templates, especially if it means an incompatibility with your current provider?

$25M for a cruise ship? It cost 372 million pounds (or approximately $570M) to build in 2006. Aside from your order of magnitude, however, you have the right idea. It is quite probable that repairing the ship would be the most cost effective solution for the cruise line and its insurers.

Carnival's estimated financial impact factors in recovery and repairing of the ship rather than scrapping it, currently.

Middle click automatically opens up in a new tab? All this time I've been right clicking and using the menu to do so...thanks!

I don't doubt that Mark Steyn said that, but what he said is false. In April 2010, Moody's lowered Greece's rating from A2 to A3, which is definitely not the same as Aaa. It is closer to "junk" rating than a triple-A rating. It is also worth noting that less than two months later, in June, Moody's cut the rating all the way to junk status, Ba1.

It's ok, Texas can have them. They can take Lieberman while they're at it, too.

Sincerely,
A Connecticut Resident

I didn't double check your math, and you're obviously intentionally exaggerating the speed of a jump, but someone who could jump at 18m/s would have a vertical leap of about 16m or 50 feet on Earth.

They haven't changed them here in CT or in nearby NY yet. There are, however gaps in the numbers sometimes...not sure if it's because the exits were removed, planned but never made, or someone didn't know how to count. For example, the first exit on I-95 in CT is exit 2.

Not to even a casual Simpsons fan...or at least it shouldn't be!

Yes, there is a limited supply of iron on Earth. There is also a limited supply of atoms on Earth, because the Earth is not infinite. However, iron is the most abundant element on Earth (source), although a good portion of that is in the Earth's core. The value of iron compared to the cost of mining it outside of our gravity well doesn't really add up, though. If mining iron outside of Earth ever becomes a profitable proposition then we're likely in dire straits already...