*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@qoto.org

@binsrc OMG!

Can one take more than one option? 😲

The stain is just a colour agent, or does it attack the eye tissue?

@mngrif Oh, yeah, right. 😛

@mngrif but surely there's some bar in the airport, a huge one, no?

"Solar Sailing

Light is made of packets of energy called photons. While photons have no mass, they have momentum. Solar sails capture this momentum with sheets of large, reflective material such as Mylar. As photons bounce off the sail, most of their momentum is transferred, speeding up the sail in the direction opposite the bouncing light.

Unlike chemical rockets that provide short, powerful bursts of thrust, solar sails provide continuous, slight thrust and can reach higher speeds over time. Sunlight is free and unlimited, whereas rocket propellant must be carried into orbit and be stored onboard a spacecraft."

The Planetary Society's LightSail project.

https://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/

@mngrif Take Caltrain to SF downtown, if you have enough time?

Just read another news item about the Planetary Society's successful experiment with Solar Sail propelled spacecraft earlier this year.

I love the idea, and fondly recall one of my favourite Arthur Clarke Novels, titled "The Solar Wind", whci I read many years ago.

Searched for it, and found a complete post of the "Sunjammer"short story originally published by Clarke, which was further expanded into the novel.

Read it here and enjoy. 😉

https://bookzone.boyslife.org/arthur-c-clarke/

see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunjammer

"All spacecraft come with an expiration date: They can only travel as far as the fuel onboard allows.

This is one of the biggest obstacles we face in attempting to explore deep space.

But an experiment spearheaded by the Planetary Society may be a step toward addressing that problem. The group launched a satellite called LightSail 2 on June 25; it's designed to be the first-ever spacecraft propelled solely by sunlight."

https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-first-ever-solar-sail-unfurling-in-orbit-2019-7

@mngrif Oh, you barely landed and already going high. 😜

@realcaseyrollins From the awesome TV series "Kung Fu", starred by David Carradine, the disciple in the photo.

His master called him "young grasshopper". Beautiful series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_(TV_series)

https://youtu.be/gbNCBVzPYak

@binsrc @zevahs

I agree there's a lot to worry about, you mentioned the major points. There is also the economy:

- grow has dropped to very low levels, and has not recovered even with the ridiculously low interest rates now in place for over 10 years.

- there will be economic impacts from climate change. Crops not growing as well, soils drying, stronger storms than in the past on average.

- energy, the petroleum we have is a finite resource and unclear when demand for it will be reduced by alternative transportation, electric vehicles, etc.

Worrisome times to live in.

The use of computing to monitor the population and influence elections and public opinion is disheartening.

@realcaseyrollins Want Not, Waste Not, grasshopper.

@teknonomicon I am worried about the coming year. With all the polarization, agit propaganda by Fox on the public airwaves and so many people armed, it's worrisome there could be something bad happening.

The Atlantic has a whole recent issue on this - they considered the current situation very similar to the political climate just before the American Civil War exploded.

Haven't read the issue yet, they are one of my favourite sources but I have been absorbed in the fediverse and all the new things to discover and learn.

@pganssle Hello Paul, good evening and welcome to Qoto.

Seems no one replied to you and gave you the welcome we try to post to all new users; until now, that it is.

I wouldn't consider that you are worrying too much - taking a risk when it's not essential is not a good thing, there are a lot of bad actors out there, including state agents. Lock it down and keep it private is the best, imo.

I wouldn't think it's an exaggeration or an undue scare. I had a linux firewall for years on my home network, before the commercial routers started to become any good and secure.

I used SmoothWall, running on a spare older computer, and it had a lot of nice features and controls.

Have been using commercial routers for the past few years, most of the time with custom firmware - Tomato is the one I use.

Enjoy your stay, post any topics you are interested in for discussion. Reminds me I should go and take a look how the Smoothwall project is doing nowadays! 😄

@togs You skipped it?

@teknonomicon Absolutely.

It's unbelievable that the USA is the only developed country where health is a profit center, and there's no public health insurance.

Might be easier to change your country of residence though, as the interest entrenched are huge and the political system largely corrupted by lobbying and corporate "citizenship", unfettered political donations, etc.

And that's only the publicly acknowledged facts. Shame. 😔

You can reproduce that search result with this link: https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=pSWvPizpR3S51sWhI8N7Ao7zY1M_1497963026_1:2:2&bq=author%3Dneal%2520stephenson%26title%3Dcryptonomicon&ps=tp

...and from there, can even change the Currency or destination if you like.

Good luck, happy shopping, get your books before the Christmas rush and clogged mail systems!

Once you have selected the search terms hit enter and wait. A numer of editions might popup - unless you used the ISBN of the one you really want, not necessary in most cases.

From the few possible edition results, pick one, the system will display a screen full of results.

Including price with Shipping included, if you enabled that, in your currency choice, for new and Used books alike.

A screnshot, I cropped it to half width to keep size manageable - and I am usually looking for more affordable used copies too.

Prices show are in Canadian dollars, shipped to Canada, for a Hardcover edition.

Used books normally have some kind of condition description on their listing.

Almost new. Good Condition. Acceptable, etc, with the price going down for less desirable copies.