Talk-Polywell.org

Another issue that is near and dear to my heart is the idea of disenfranchising stupid and or ignorant voters. If you don't know anything at all about the candidate you are voting for then you are just screwing up the process for the rest of us who actually know what we're doing. And that sir, is w...

There are a number of options. Various air launch/cannon or ram accelerator/tether relays, The "Cheap & Stupid Engineering" philosophy of the Sea Dragon BDB, and of course a megascale structure for a national prestige project. Plenty of pathways if the will is there. Ah, my very favorite launch tec...

I would just prefer that elected officials (Representatives, Senators, and President) be elected and then THEY should decide what a reasonable amount of taxation is necessary to run the Necessary functions of Government. The natural inclination of those people who become part of the Government is t...

Yes, having more ships probably would have sped WWII up. Maybe prevented it altogether. Who can say? Also possible would be a buildup of arms on both sides, until an attack happens anyway. One only need look at the war with the Soviets. We never got into a direct confrontation with them because the ...

Heh. Probably true, at that. It's good to balance your bias. Still, I'm thinking of the naval arms race that occurred before WW1. It's agreed by pretty much everyone at this point that it was a contributing factor to the hostilities. Sorry Billy, but I suspect you're wrong about an arms race helping...

Perl harbour, I guess. I don't understand how you think it applies, since it was a navy fleet that got bombed. Having more ships would have helped? And arms races prevent wars? Wow, was my history teacher ever wrong! What does discouraging war have to do with helping the economy? Unless I'm complete...

Oy. A little heavy on the DoE hate there. Using wind on boats vs on land isn't curious at all, any more than it's curious that we don't use perchlorate based fuels in motorcycles.
Sometimes, you don't need the densest energy storage possible. Sometimes, it's a Bad Thing.

Oy. If that's what Nebel has to go through every time he posts on this forum, no wonder we haven't heard much from him lately...

Or Waterloo...

I've been trying to figure out a good construction project I can put together. Then I started reading about backyard aluminum casting. I've read that you can make UHV tanks out of aluminum (not that I'd try), but would aluminum coil casings work? Or would this at least be a cheap step towards a Fusor?

As I understand it, when virtual particles pairs are created, you get a 'normal' particle, and an antiparticle. If the antiparticle fell in more often than the normal one, that would let mass escape. I couldn't tell you why things don't average out, though.

Wait, what? I've never seen anyone else who likes filk! My friends barely put up with it...

Um, reading about (and hopefully building soon) repraps, researching space launch tech, iGEM and other synthetic bio stuff.
A little bit of squash, if I can find the time.

Hydro power is the sanest, cleanest power in the world. No waste, no storage problems, completely renewable. Yes, it sucks that people lost their homes, but that's a governmental problem, nothing to do with AWG or hydro power. The US already gets a fair percentage of it's power from hydro, since tha...

Eh, It's not as bad as you make it out. We've had that requirement up here in Canada for a while, and nobody's dead yet.
It was probably removed because it's just plain annoying.

VHDL hardly qualifies as a programming language. It certainly qualifies as a pain in the rear, though. For some reason I had to learn it last year. Wish they'd taught us Verilog instead. Sorry Simon, but you seem to be advocating a return to assembly language, because a really good programmer doesn'...