... wow, i just edited my profile.. last time i did i was 33... now i'm 50... amazing.

Wow, it has been a lot of years since I have bothered to login to my account here, but I absolutely had to to respond to this article.

Richard Dawkins is a complete fool. Many years ago, I thought he was really smart, and insightful, but as the last 15 years or so have gone on, he is just plainly dumber and dumber... is he getting dumber, or am I getting smarter?

I hope I don't get dumber as I get up to his age.

Maybe I missed something, but it seems weird as fuck for Palmer, the guy who created a suicide device for fucks sake, to be sucking the cocks of the military industry.

They are still functional as USB barcode scanners, with the right software.

... can i store them like on a USB disk attached to the Xbox 360? Or what? like, what's the process for really taking advantage of the fact that they've introduced huge discounts to almost the entire store?

or will the download servers still live on, even after the store closes?

...why are nearly 100% of the people in multiplayer VR environments somewhere around 6 years old?

I think there's some belief involved here, because we don't really know whatever the hell it was that Tesla was up to at the time. We don't have enough information, I don't think, about what went on in his head, what he was ultimately doing, to know if he had some theory in his brain that we haven't even come close to rediscovering, or not.

It seems clear that if we had a way to do this already, if we could prove out that this was possible, using the knowledge that we have right now, then we would already be doing it, if the technological progress wasn't out of our reach.

I think this kind of hints at an underlying question -- do you believe that Tesla knew what he was doing, and that he may well have had some idea that we haven't even yet thought of, that might've worked?

I am way too late with this, but it seems no one bothered to double check the links. Even the Russian MoD has stated this is totally incorrect:

The media reports suggesting that Russia is developing a strategic bomber that is capable of performing tasks in space, do not correspond to reality, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement received by TASS on Thursday.

The ministry said that the media had misinterpreted the words of a military academy representative about an alleged development of "a space bomber".

http://www.ruaviation.com/news...

Well, at least don't try to get a job in a warehouse.

Or as a taxi driver.

Or in a restaurant.

crap. Looks like the Robopocalypse is nigh.

That's interesting, because Russia itself announced they were postponing their lunar ambitions for a long time due to the economic crisis they are facing due to low oil prices, costs of fighting in Syria and Ukraine and the fact they abolished/reformed ROSCOSMOS into a state corporation with an emphasis on profit making. Besides, in aerospace circles, going back to the 1990s, being profiled in PM was considered the 'kiss of death.'

Great! We could sue people as fast as software can file claims. I smell the Baby Cooper Dollar Bill in the making.

What's your phone number? Well, its a lichen, not a plant, so you can keep your number.

I hate to say it, but we're too late for 2 C. Even if we call a halt to CO2 emissions, the gas already in the atmosphere is likely to carry us up and over. To make matters worse, the carbon capture technologies coal plants were supposed to get don't work as well as advertised. Even if we do hold to 2 C, btw, we are going to have long term sea level rise.

Global warming at this point is inevitable. Even probably 5 C warming. Some are arguing 8 C by the end of the century. However, its not the end of the world. Just a radically different one.

(yeah I've been following this very closely for over a decade)

Amusingly, coccolithophores, the calcium shelled plankton, everyone has been really worried would be seriously impacted by the rise in carbon dioxide causing oceanic acidification actually grow MORE in raised CO2 environments.

DF-21D: that's a BALLISTIC missile and ABM is something we do rather well. The navy spent a lot of money developing the standard missile 3 for just that purpose even before the Chinese developed their toy. The SM3 also makes for a passable ASAT as was demonstrated and the Block IIA variant does Mach 15 with a range in excess of 933 nm. Hypersonic missiles as I am meaning are sea skimmers or relatively low altitude ones. These would give a total of 30 miles or so to down them. At Mach 10, that's holy shbt bad, at 15 seconds. A ballistic missile arcs up quite high above the horizon and allows for very long engagement times due to its detectability.

First off, there are no hypersonic missiles and will not be for a good 5 or 6 years at least. Secondly, swarming with missiles is, indeed, one way to kill warships. Its exactly what the Soviets planned to do in order to prevent the US from reinforcing Europe in the event of a NATO/Warsaw Pact war before the end of the Cold War. However, the US is very, very, very good at fighting this sort of war. A Zumwalt has 80 VLS cells that can be packed with missiles (though these are meant for attacking, not defending on the Zumies, except when using the ESSM self defense missile (4 to a VLS cell)). However, the Burke class, which would accompany a Zum, each have 90+ VLS cells themselves and an excellent radar system. You'll probably need a minimum of 50 to 75 missiles to get a ship for each Burke defending the Zum. It starts getting really expensive. The US is really good at the hot missile on missile action: even against ballistic missiles. The best way to attack a Zum is with a sub. Defenses against subs are not nearly as good as against incoming missiles. There are NUMEROUS examples of even 'bitty' SSK subs sneaking up on even the big carriers.