The Facebook Fallacy -- "Facebook is not only on course to go bust, but will take the rest of the ad-supported Web with it." It's a marketing business, run by geeks. It's not the next Google, it's the next AOL

phileconomicus · 2012-05-23T23:22:27.943700+00:00

3.8BN

ragerlol1 · 2012-05-23T19:00:19.133283+00:00

It is possible that they want all that 20,000kg pressurized. Dragon carries significantly less if you exclude the trunk.

ragerlol1 · 2012-05-23T18:00:40.828156+00:00

Ah, well the CRS $ is high. I don't know why NASA spent so much. SpaceX offers flights for cheaper. Part of it might be that NASA is not allowing Dragon reuse for the CRS missions. That also talks about possible increases in funding that never happened.

Edit: The Dragon is also as far as we know capable of carrying 6metric tons to the ISS. They got 12 missions to carry up 20tons instead of 4 ... which is probably why the cost ratio is wonky. I'm not sure why this is the case.

chefranden · 2012-05-23T17:32:19.899403+00:00

Yeah, that would be the most accurate metric.

JackIsidore · 2012-05-23T17:30:29.100747+00:00

He is talking about moral issues, and while economic issues are also moral, he does not mention social justice or economic redistributionism.

Because TED is for, and by, unbelievably rich people, they tiptoe around questions of the justness of a society that rewards TED attendees so much for what usually amounts to a series of lucky breaks.

...

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson.html#8.42

Not once did they mention this talk. It is a clear and obvious counter point to most of what the article says so they IGNORE IT.

ragerlol1 · 2012-05-23T15:26:05.813044+00:00

Where did you get the Progress #?

JackIsidore · 2012-05-23T15:21:49.861604+00:00

Err... I looked at the 2nd article on the front page and there weren't any. So...

JackIsidore · 2012-05-23T15:13:32.756895+00:00

It is an opportunistic attack from a non-news, biased, self congratulatory circle-jerk of a blog site. Talk about pot calling the kettle black, accusations of bias coming from a site that is best described as an activist site posing as news (They have a mission statement and it sure isn't factual accuracy). But enough about AlterNet.

The piece nicely riles up their fan base using manipulative language and claims with nothing backing it up. The title alone really say it all. Appealing to emotion rather than logic. And leveraging pre-existing angers (the rich elite) to whip people up.

If you take out the fear mongering and present the article neutrally giving facts and no opinions you get:

earlier people thought TED was censoring someone, they weren't.
TED was a tech/ent/design conference.
Now it is a networking opportunity and they post videos online for free
TED has branched out to TEDx. Celebrities do the talks for free.
A trade journal likes TED
It costs a lot to go to. So mostly rich people are there.

That's about it. Not that I'm saying that ONLY facts can be presented but really, their arguments were weak.

They know that TED has posted talks about social justice and economic redistribution in the past but conveniently ignored them. This is why Alternet is shit. They don't care about some minor omissions or fact bending. So long as they get their point across.

nomdeweb · 2012-05-23T14:49:38.651155+00:00

Uhm... Iraq no longer has any US military in it. And he's already signed agreements that block any permanent bases from being built in Iraq.

It is completely different from Germany or Japan. There are tens of thousands of troops there. Tanks... missiles... helicopters, you name it.

nomdeweb · 2012-05-23T14:47:05.303410+00:00

There aren't any troops in Iraq. How is it just a ploy? He has been calling DOMA 'defense against marriage act' for a long time now. And there was a bill to repeal it that failed, making a public statement could help it pass next time.

ragerlol1 · 2012-05-23T14:43:30.108169+00:00

In many cases the free market does suck. This is actually one of those cases since cost of entry is super high and the market is rather small. BUT government is doing it SO badly that it is still a huge improvement :/

nomdeweb · 2012-05-23T13:28:45.744835+00:00

? He ended Iraq slightly before he had originally planned since pre-election. He got DADT repealed and has crapped on DOMA his whole term with one repeal attempt. His saying it on TV in a direct and public fashion helped gay rights all by it's self. I wouldn't be at all surprised by a 3~5 point swing in favor of gay marriage because of it.

What immigration reform? Pretty sure Sheriff Joe is scaring most of the immigrants away at this point.

mepper · 2012-05-23T13:24:11.297764+00:00

If the Southern Baptist Convention and the World Baptist Alliance don't both condemn and eject this pastor/church then they are condoning it. As of yet they've both said nothing.

nomdeweb · 2012-05-23T13:06:34.215374+00:00

What did he convince you of last election that he didn't work on during his term?

nomdeweb · 2012-05-23T13:00:41.109102+00:00

The US actually rejects any/all assistance the cubans offered.

Cuba: One of the first countries to offer aid, Cuba offered to send 1,586 doctors and 26 tons of medicine. This aid was rejected by the State Department.[18] Also, before the 2006 World Baseball Classic, Cuba said they would donate their share of the winnings to Katrina victims to ensure the United States embargo against Cuba was not violated. However, after the tournament, the U.S. government refused to allow the donation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina

Sad part is that they still responded about as fast as the US government.

ragerlol1 · 2012-05-23T12:55:06.791988+00:00

The COTS program NASA has is designed to pick out a dozen or so potential groups and put them through the ringer, the winner of the competition gets enough funding that they can hope to break into the market.

It actually is designed to stop exactly the problem you mention.

mepper · 2012-05-23T12:46:21.886566+00:00

There are parts by the poles that are permadark but you are of course right. I think what I meant was Far side of the moon to get away from Earthly interference. We do tend to put out a lot of noise. A dark spot on the far side would be best.

JackIsidore · 2012-05-23T12:41:46.203084+00:00

Well 59% did.

ragerlol1 · 2012-05-23T12:39:47.320537+00:00

Ah, I see where you got the 3x thing. The Falcon/Dragon is cheaper than that congress just gave them a big margin.

They have many private customers, but haven't launched any on the Dragon yet ... not sure why that is a requirement.

And NASA hasn't forked over the 1.6BN yet... it is pay as you go. NASA hasn't even awarded all the development $ since the COTS and CCDev missions are not complete. Regardless, 1BN is wrong. I know they got $278M through COTS (Only because kistler got the boot). And like 15M through CCDev or so. Not 1BN. Not sure where you get that figure.

And they have a few hundred million in private funding. Then a large manifest of customers. Probably half their income is from NASA over the next few years. But it isn't just being given to them. They are for the most part selling a service.

ragerlol1 · 2012-05-23T12:21:03.463686+00:00

Where did you get that figure? Anyways, Dragon is almost 3x as capable as progress and has downmass capability.

I wouldn't be surprised if a Soyuz launch is a little cheaper than a Falcon 9 for the time being though. The Zenit is certainly cheaper but the thing is a death trap.

If FHeavy works close to as planned it will blow these away anyways.

chefranden · 2012-05-23T05:53:31.147472+00:00

Wat?

chefranden · 2012-05-22T22:53:01.690557-07:00

He actually didn't really cut many jobs. Mostly wage freezes.

chefranden · 2012-05-23T05:40:10.282872+00:00

It should actually be compared to GDP rather than inflation. That better measures the growth of the country rather than simply the growth of the dollar.

I mean... your metric doesn't take into account population growth AT ALL. That is a pretty big hole!

JackIsidore · 2012-05-23T05:36:34.621620+00:00

I just meant that Alternet is /r/politics worthy.

mepper · 2012-05-23T05:32:20.325910+00:00

China will. This is exactly the sort of thing China is good at. HUGE long term projects. No other country comes close.

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