jccooper

33 ms·

421.
by jccooper 7y ago
Ancient accounts of the pyramids say it was white with inscriptions on it. (No casing stones with carvings survive, however.) It's not unlikely that any carvings on the exterior would have been painted. There's no indication of th
422.
by jccooper 7y ago
Big launch -> lots of problems at once -> newsworthy. The rest have all have the same problem, just not all at once so no one cares. (And also it's easier for support to handle when not in a big lump, and also they're not br
423.
by jccooper 7y ago
When people say they work in "technology" they're really shortening it from "high technology" (or perhaps "technology development".) This makes it a useful distinction; if you take it literally, everyone&#
424.
by jccooper 7y ago
Tradition and machismo.
425.
by jccooper 7y ago
Vehicular smash and grabs certainly happen, and I suspect that's the reason for most store bollards. Going through my local shopping center, the grocery store has a couple that are clearly for pedestrian protection, the pet store don&#
426.
by jccooper 7y ago
They are meant to be temporary, and are not even fixed to the ground.
427.
by jccooper 7y ago
Parachutes were supposed to be easy because they have plenty of heritage and other users. And in spite of the problems they likely still are easier. Any other system would need even more testing.
428.
by jccooper 7y ago
Major highway and road projects in the US are often completed with minimal fuss. You don't really hear about these, because they go off smoothly. The difference may perhaps be that there's plenty of experience and precedent in doi
429.
by jccooper 7y ago
Thimbleweed Park.
430.
by jccooper 7y ago
While "don't be a distraction" is a reasonable principal, Stallman's problem here is clearly that he got on the wrong side of a single issue. He's constantly going on about how language and/or the world is tech
431.
by jccooper 7y ago
> Burns has worked on his design in private, without any sponsorship from NASA Seems like they didn't, though as usual the article completely buries that information. I kinda wish NASA had a policy like Disney, where you can't
432.
by jccooper 7y ago
I'll start worrying about super-intelligent AI when I see any sort of general intelligence. We're still very far away from that. Currently the biggest danger from AI is from applying it where it's not as smart as you think it
433.
by jccooper 7y ago
Any new ones would be. The inaccessible ones are all old... as is most of the subway system.
434.
by jccooper 7y ago
Doubtless there's some pricing power coming into play. An "alternative" is always going to be pricier, else it wouldn't be an alternative, it would just be the thing. But: food costs are something like 25% of a restauran
435.
by jccooper 7y ago
Cauliflower costs substantially more than flour, if I were to guess. The plant based patties are highly processed and much lower volume. Why would you expect these things to cost the same?
436.
by jccooper 7y ago
...and more wasteful manufacturing. There's usually a reason products are shipped.
437.
by jccooper 7y ago
I use these. While theoretically they can attract pests, I've never noticed any biological activity associated with them.
438.
by jccooper 7y ago
So where's the planetary protection complaints on this one?
439.
by jccooper 7y ago
There won't be much literature because Raptor is essentially the first production methane engine. Everyone in the past seems to have decided to optimize strongly for either Isp, bulk density, or storability, and methane is the best at
440.
by jccooper 7y ago
Nuclear would be better, but it's not quite as good as it seems. Nuclear engines are rather heavier than chemical.
441.
by jccooper 7y ago
It doesn't help much. Most of the work in achieving orbit is in gaining speed "sideways". Your average orbital launch achieves high airplane altitudes in the first 15-20 seconds out of a 500 second flight. It's easier to
442.
by jccooper 7y ago
Probably not. But, while an air-breather would be more useful on a larger planet, it would still be the case that almost all of the space launch system's work must be done outside the sensible atmosphere. Air breathing would only add t
443.
by jccooper 7y ago
Making orbit is a single hard step; raising orbit, which is all that making it to the moon requires, can be done more gradually (with low-thrust/high-efficiency engines, on-orbit resupply, etc). So if you can get off the planet you can
444.
by jccooper 7y ago
It is, and is supposed to be. Elon loves to talk about Mars, but the real story behind this architecture is complete ownership of spacelift until someone else catches up. Then the story becomes enabling actual space industry.
445.
by jccooper 7y ago
That's a pretty standard taxi price structure. Open, but not clear. I have no idea based on that how much a trip will cost, even if somehow I managed to keep that whole table memorized.
446.
by jccooper 7y ago
The typical highly-structured educational environment seems to be an increasing disservice to those being educated, if indeed it ever was useful.
447.
by jccooper 7y ago
Pay in full every month.
448.
by jccooper 7y ago
Falcon 9 is known to have a radar altimeter; it's quite likely the Starhopper does too.
449.
by jccooper 7y ago
It runs for a longer time; the dehumidifying function of an air conditioner (the original use, thus the name) is a function of airflow x time, and airflow doesn't change much.
450.
by jccooper 7y ago
Blue Origin's comments seem mostly to be concerned that the language of the proposal often doesn't meet the intent of the proposal, and that some things are undefined. Virgin Orbit also thinks that it remains too prescriptive. ULA

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