iwwr

25 ms·

211.
by iwwr 12y ago
What about landing a mass driver on the rock and slowly shoot bits of it into space? Another option is a generic ion engine fed by the local material.
212.
by iwwr 12y ago
However, clocks were expensive to manufacture and few ships had them. The lunar distance method was a mainstay of navigation until the latter 19th century.
213.
by iwwr 12y ago
>I think the issue with Stirling Engines is the fact that they have moving parts that could wear and break down. In NASA's ASRG design there is a stirling generator with only has one moving part: a free piston moving inside a coil,
214.
by iwwr 12y ago
Apparently, the rate of production is enough for just one deep-space mission per decade.
215.
by iwwr 12y ago
The fact that there is such a thing as 'jaywalking' is a broken aspect of modern society.
216.
by iwwr 12y ago
A civilisation where people can live arbitrarily long lives may have some interesting consequences. For one, cultural stagnation caused by people with entrenched beliefs sticking around. A lot of social progress and scientific development h
217.
by iwwr 12y ago
Excluding accidents, natural disasters, murder or suicide.
218.
by iwwr 12y ago
If you liked that one, you may also enjoy 'Accelerando' by Charlie Stross. It's available for free at Stross' blog: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...
219.
by iwwr 12y ago
A little less than half the surface of Mars has pressures above the triple point of water, so wherever the temperatures dip above 0C, maybe a few hours a day in the equatorial regions, liquid water can exist. Deeper craters closer to the eq
220.
by iwwr 12y ago
It could be much lower than that if you take roundabout trajectories with gravity assists from Earth, Venus and Mercury. Not having to establish orbit is definitely a plus. Besides, nuclear waste is still mostly unburned fuel which could be
221.
by iwwr 12y ago
The bigger headache is keeping those educated people in SA, a country unlikely to reform socially very much to accomodate them, let alone the competition for skilled people in general. The social exclusion of women alone is a great drag on
222.
by iwwr 12y ago
The chemical industry requires oil and gas as both a raw material and a source of industrial heat. The fossil-derived industrial heat may be replaced by electricity produced from various sources, including nuclear. Secondly, if electricity
223.
by iwwr 12y ago
This requires Flash. Is there any chance of a html version?
224.
by iwwr 12y ago
Maybe HN needs a basic personal messaging system?
225.
by iwwr 12y ago
There's also a free mini-course by David Butler https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpH1IDQEoE8Q8842yVe-V... It goes into a little more detail than a typical popularizing course, but enough even for laypeople to und
226.
by iwwr 12y ago
There's a whole batch of patents related to space trajectories. Edward Belbruno also holds a few patents on low-energy transfers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Belbruno Belbruno has been an innovative resea
227.
by iwwr 12y ago
Readable for every recent OS, but apparently not writable by Mac OSX.
228.
by iwwr 12y ago
If slavery on the inside is not controversial, even less so is "judicial rape", the expectations that prisoners get sexually assaulted in prison, along with their legal punishment.
229.
by iwwr 12y ago
I remember one such list was also created for people related to running poker and gambing sites outside the US.
230.
by iwwr 12y ago
You can sort-of do analog input-output via the audio ports on the pi, right?
231.
by iwwr 12y ago
It looks compatible with Uno shields, but adds more pins at 3.3V on the side.
232.
by iwwr 12y ago
Arduino has more digital I/O pins and 6-7 pins that can do analog output (via PWM). This new Arduino has even more pins and can do both 3.3V and 5V logic, though I fail to see the advantage of mixing those up. Overall, Arduino draws lo
233.
by iwwr 12y ago
Somehow, I don't think John McCain or Mitt Romney would have made any better paragons of civil rights or of a restrained executive (though it was hard to believe Obama would be worse than Bush in that regard). It's a political sys
234.
by iwwr 12y ago
Why is this list specially made for hackers and not all criminals hiding outside the US?
235.
by iwwr 12y ago
Well, it's also about the durability of the information medium. Clay tablets have survived remarkably well and they give us a better view into ancient Mesopotamia (particularly the ancient Ur-III dinasty) than later centuries' rec
236.
by iwwr 12y ago
There are also electrically-assisted bicycles (e-bikes), somewhat more expensive but good for short commutes.
237.
by iwwr 12y ago
Copenhagen and most European cities are high density and were largely built before the car or zoning was invented. Most people there live within bike-commute distance, which isn't the case for the US.
238.
by iwwr 12y ago
If you increase the price, the demand can plummet as well. This can be in the form of a high minimum wage, complex labor rules, legally mandated compensation, high taxes etc.
239.
by iwwr 12y ago
There is no such thing as a right to do a particular job for a particular organization. Jobs can't be stolen the same way spouses or boyfriends can't be stolen, they are consensual relationships that can be made and unmade. Intere
240.
by iwwr 12y ago
Please note that nitrogen in the air is also biologically useful, given nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Legumes and other plants live in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixers.

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