Schoenfeld wrote:
Mike wrote:
Uncle Al wrote:
Sam Wormley wrote:

[Planetary Science]
A Grand Slam: In a winning move, NASA probe burrows into a comet

A 372-kilogram copper projectile released from NASA's Deep Impact
spacecraft successfully slammed into Comet Tempel 1 on July 4,
producing some heavenly fireworks.
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050709/bob7.asp

Bottom line: Comet dust is more like talcum powder than beach sand.
The thing is poorly consolidated but fairly dense.

The next step is to play with cumulative dust surface area and piddle
about selectively adsorbed MOLECULES OF LIFE. Maybe the cure for AIDS
or cancer is on a comet. Let's get NIH in space - they've got
tremendously fat budgets for psychologists to endlessly videotape
unhappy people.

Taxes pay for NIH's budget and paying taxes makes me unhappy. Hmmm,
maybe there is a connection....

You have no money.
I pay my taxes quarterly so four times a year it sure feels that way.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking


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

The FDIC was once a client of mine. As I recall from history class
those many, many years ago, the US was plagued with boom-bust economic
cycles. After the biggest bust (aka the great depression) steps were
taken to deal with the problem of bank runs. A bank run occurs when
depositors demand en mass their money because they think that their
bank is in trouble. The bank can't give everybody their money all at
once because the banks have most of it loaned out. Ergo, crash.

Deposit insurance promises that depositors will not loose their money,
therefore they don't panic ergo no more bank runs. That is, the
problems with Fractional-reserve_banking were all in people's heads.
The FDIC HQ looks like a fort with a very solid looking exterior. "We
are strong therefore your money is strong". Again, it's all in
people's heads.

Physics is done by some people and funded by other people. The former
have to have a good appreciation of what goes on in the heads of the
latter to be successful.


--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz.pdf