Recent content by Mk

Solutions: A: Create a darker room to project your image in. B: Bigger light gathering structures. C: Go to a brighter place. Watch this video:

I went and checked since you said that. Turns out I think I read it on a different site! But this Wikipedia article on space-based solar power made me realize its more complex than that. The density of the atmosphere is always changing with altitude and weather...

5. How would you store the energy gained from the fall of a payload? On what order would that energy be? Would graphene supercapacitors be appropriate? If it is large enough, could we just push the electricity directly into the grid, or use the activation energy as a catalyst for extremely high...

The elevator is a tether, likely of unspooled carbon nanoribbons connecting sea level Earth with a satellite or counterweight floating in geosynchronous orbit. Flying vehicles or space stations could dock to its port in space. Check the first link in my first post for more information.

Hi PF, I've been tasked with joining a team in Budapest to design an endogenously powered space elevator. I was wondering if I could talk about some concepts with you while I prepare for the 1 month camp. http://copernicus.exosphe.re/ Right now I'm wondering if there is a way I can generate a...

Postmodernists would be the #1 people who would regard that paper as an exceptionally good postmodern paper. It's exactly the type of thing that they try to bring to light. Example: Duchamp's "fountain"

I always think it is funny, the conditions under which a lie is accepted as OK. Few people seem to be condemning those who submitted intentionally false papers to these journals.

Imagine if Newton or Leibnitz had copyrighted their work in calculus. Then, as a student, you would have to pay them in order to learn it, in order to use it in your projects, and if you wanted to sell a machine or program that used it.

You'll make it just fine.

NSA systems have already been used to spy on love interests, and have likely (this is my opinion) already been used to blackmail people. Individuals are not any more scrupulous than you or I. Imagine the power trip going on here, the commander of the NSA having his private "Dominance Center"...

Depends on where you start. Some parts of math might seem inherently interesting to you... others may interest other people! If you want to like math, try talking to some of your friends who really like math. They'll show you where the fun stuff is hiding :)

reminds me of this. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/treasury-we-ve-kept-debt-exactly-16699396000000-4-months

The wiki article says it had six failsafes.

Two articles I thought of based on your post: http://lesswrong.com/lw/gq6/visual_mental_imagery_training/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/ When I "visualize" mathematic or physical things, they exist as pure forms, moving geometries. So the vividness tests that...

If wrong and right are just words, then why do you care about how the conversation goes?