[shakety]

You know what? If we were only so kind to our environment and natural resources, we won't be needing to check out the outer space! It i just silly. It is still not to late to go green.

[AgentR11]

Great reply HopDavid.

I guess the ultimate question is how to translate generated wealth from the space system to the ground based system. As long as the scale is small, as it would be for the foreseeable future, your basically just selling fuel to be used in non productive observation missions. I doubt we'd get to the point of having enough people in space that their internal economy would provide sufficient motivation; so the question eventually becomes, how does one go from the ability to produce and sell fuel in space, to value acquired by Earth inhabitants.

Pictures are worth only so much... how many people have looked at even 1% of Cassini's output?

I'm not predicting they can't find a way to deliver ground value, but it sure does seem like a long, long road to get there.

For now, pretty cool benchmark, if they can make some propellant in space that gets used in space.

[HopDavid]

Great reply HopDavid.

I guess the ultimate question is how to translate generated wealth from the space system to the ground based system. As long as the scale is small, as it would be for the foreseeable future, your basically just selling fuel to be used in non productive observation missions. I doubt we'd get to the point of having enough people in space that their internal economy would provide sufficient motivation; so the question eventually becomes, how does one go from the ability to produce and sell fuel in space, to value acquired by Earth inhabitants.

Pictures are worth only so much... how many people have looked at even 1% of Cassini's output?

I'm not predicting they can't find a way to deliver ground value, but it sure does seem like a long, long road to get there.

For now, pretty cool benchmark, if they can make some propellant in space that gets used in space.

Presently there is around 300 billion dollars of orbital assets in cislunar space. These include gps, weather sats, communication sats and others.

These assets are very difficult to reach. When a satellite runs of station keeping propellant or fails in other ways, it is less expensive to let it die and launch a new satellite. Given propellant in earth orbits, transportation in cislunar space could become much more routine less expensive. Repairing and upgrading existing assets would become cost effective, as well as salvaging dead sats.

It would also become easier to deliver new satellites to earth orbits.

So the potential market for orbital propellant is larger than observation missions.

Cassini took pictures of Saturn's neighborhood. Besides pointing at space, the Arkyd scopes could also be pointed at earth. Pictures of the earth are worth a lot to some people. The orbital telescopes is larger than university astronomy departments.

[TomMajor]

It`s nobody bother or do something until it will be too late... I think, we should look forward in the future +40-50 years at least....

[robertsmith123]

Why does Google keep asking for my phone number? Facebook is starting to do this as well.

[bochen280]

Google goggles to save the world, CEO says resources are not running out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0WH-CoFwn4

I quote him at 18:50 in the clip:

"I think that the world has enough resources to really provide a good quality of life to everyone. You know, we have enough raw materials and things like that."

"I think we need to get better organized and really move a lot faster and really make -- working on making that a reality, really by developing amazing technology that helps the world get better organized, that helps people be more productive, and I think that's an amazing, amazing thing to see happen. "

"And I think with that we can easily double human progress and the rate at which we're developing."

--- What is this guy smoking? Google makes a self driving car that goes around snapping photos of people's streetviews and siphoning and snooping WiFi for the NSA and so now they think they can solve the world's biggest problems too?

And to think that Executive Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt was an economic adviser to Obama administration. Larry Page can't be THAT dumb....

Either he truly believes in his own kool-aid, or he is trying to propagandize the sheeple into believing the hype of the dream so he can get a bigger piece of his pie on the top echelons of the ponzi pyramid scheme.

[Arthur75]

Yeah, I think Sergei Brin wouldn't say such a thing.

But Page simply cannot say anything else more or less.

[bochen280]

You get 1 GB of space, enough said. http://www.gmail.com

(Sorry, I cant invite anyone yet if u want one)

A while back Google predicted that in three years "desktop" would be dead. Most of us would be spending most of our time on smaller devices such as netbooks, tablets and mobile devices.

They had to do Android to preempt the shift towards mobile computing, just as they had to do their own Chrome browser (as opposed to simply partnering with Mozilla's Firefox) to preempt the trend of the "web browser" becoming the operating system. Google never had to launch a full fledged operating system (something like Chromium OS or more) to beat Microsoft at its own game, all Google had to do is capture the browser market and sit back and wait for the browser to become the operating system, or in effective replace and supplant the traditional roles of the OS. The browser is OS independent, and most of us already spend more time IN the browser than out of it regardless of whatever operating system we use and regardless of the form factor or size of our computing devices.

So while Google HAD to do Android and Chrome and played its cards right by capturing the market for mobile and browser, ironically it is a double edge sword....

Still today roughly 96% of all Google revenue comes from advertising. A huge chunk of that from Adwords/Adsense and also display advertising online.

Problem is with the shift towards mobile the form factor is reduced to miniscule size. Simply said, the death of desktop and transition towards mobile will mark the death of the internet ecosystem as we knew it to be (freemium sites and services being paid via advertising) because there simply isn't any "real estate" on the mobile displays compared to traditional Desktop displays.

Google knows this... so far the overall growth in the online advertising industry as a whole has made up for the shift from desktop to mobile but it won't be sustained...

Google knows its BAU days are numbered.... and its one trick phony "adsense/adwords" model won't last forever... eventually when people spend far more time on their mobile devices than on traditional desktop then adsense revenue will be only a fraction of what it is today....

This is why Google is transitioning away from its core "advertising" business and diversifying into social networking (hegemony to keep eyeballs on Google properties) in order to "lock us in" in preparation of a new internet paradigm in which sites like Peak Oil will and can no longer be sustained via traditional adsense/adwords but will have to charge micro-transactions .... Google wants to position itself to be the gatekeeper of this new microtransaction reality in which we pay for everything we do on the internet and nothing will be freemium anymore... This is what Google Play, Google Wallet, Google Checkout and Google Plus is really all about.... Google knows adsense days are numbered and the future of the internet will be one of microtransaction through mobile devices (our phones will be our computers, our credit cards, our ID, etc) and this is what Eric meant when he said "governments will demand verified name systems"... etc...

With Google Play it is trying to complete directly with Amazon and get a piece of the online retailer pie.

With Google Drive it is trying to complete with Dropbox, Amazon S3, EC2, AWS, etc and get into paid storage segment and cloud computing provider, IAAS, etc...

It is obvious Google is transitioning away from advertising model because it knows its days are numbered and that micro-transactions and hegemony platforms (android marketplace, Apple App Store, etc basically non-PC platforms that charge 30% of everything, skimming and milking everyone and everything ) So while a portion of the profit margin of traditional box software used to go to retailers and distribution chains like Wal-Mart, Best buy, etc... now in the future the Apple, the Google and the Amazon will hold and wield all the power.... The Best Buys, Costcos and WalMarts will be marginalized and cannibalized in favor of online shopping in the Google/Amazon/Apple/FB controlled virtual "marketplace" selling BOTH digital AND physical goods simply because they provide the locked in platforms of the future. They will be developer, publisher and retailer, Judge, Jury and executioner... all the horizontal and vertical chains will merge at the singularity plane and Google's strategy is to "all your bases are belong to GOOG"...

Google's grand strategy is to move away from advertising (because sooner or later advertising is dead) and into selling "real stuff"... and most importantly becoming the PLATFORM of all platforms... akin analogy would be uncle sam and the petrodollar hegemony... Google seeks this same kind of hegemony power that allows it to tax the entire internet and even the physical world simply by means of it being the centralized controlling platform.... This is ultimately what "social network" is all about... this is how Google is already positioning itself to strive and survive in a world without advertising....

Also, I just noticed.... Google goggles would potentially be a solution to the advertising real estate problem... as we move from traditional desktop to mobile the screen "real estate" shrinks by orders of magnitude, thus depriving Google of adsense revenues.... Google Goggles will fix this problem, and be a best of both worlds. It will be "mobile" and extremely small form factor (infact more convenient than a cell phone) and yet because it is a HUD (head ups display) it all of a sudden becomes a "large screen display" again... and Google is yet once again able to deliver us ads the same way as back when we all sat in front of our large desktop monitors!

So maybe Google is not putting all its eggs in one basket... it is both betting for and against advertising.... this is what Google goggles is really about.. solving the display advertising issue as we transition from desktop to small form factor devices.

[bochen280]

Why does Google keep asking for my phone number? Facebook is starting to do this as well.

They claim it is for security, (two factor authentication) but in reality it all has to do with the shift towards MOBILE, and Google marketing needs to know your demographic information, what type of phone you use, your carrier... where you go, what you do.... all so they can better sell you to advertisers and to help NSA build its massive database. etc You know the adage, if you aren't paying for the product, you ARE the product.

Mobile is the future. If you aren't already using Android you can bet Google needs/wants your cell phone number. Cell phone number is like a second social security number these days. Governments and Googles alike needs it to keep track of you. They want to be able to tie/associate a search term, to a browser install, to a IP address / MAC address to a real name, to a cell phone record, to a real time GPS location to a Wifi hotspot, SSID (what do you think that streetview sniffing was for?) to a street level view of your house to your social security number etc etc in real time for everyone. So of course the more data points they can collect, the better. Google used to just need your IP address and search keyword/terms... and then gives you a cookie in return... Nowadays Google needs your REAL LEGAL NAME (Google+), *IP address*, *cell phone number*, *credit card information* (Google Checkout and Google Wallet), collects your operating system information (during Chrome install), photo of your house (streetview), your Wifi SSID and password (streetview sniffer) every URL you ever visit (through Chrome's omnibar, and also the malware checker in Chrome, Firefox, etc that uses Google's safebrowsing.clients.google.com.... don't forget the whole predictive DNS prefecthing crap and all of that nonesense that gets routed through Google too! Between that and half the internet being invested by adwords, adsense, doubleclick tracking, etc there is no where to run or hide for privacy...

With IPv6 every phone, every car, every refrigerator, toaster, camera, electronic device will have its own public ip address and be connected to the internets. Google gonna track it all. Intelligence agency is outsourcing and privatizing this crap so they can circumvent traditional privacy laws and the constitution. Corporations can do things that federal government isn't supposed to be allowed to do...

Even now as I write this, Google StreetView project already has street level imagery of every street, every building and every house, coupled that with the fact that it collected/sniffed Wifi SSID and other stuff... then plus Android taking over in mobile marketshare... put two and two together you realize Google is tracking you even when you are not online and not in front of any computer... your cellphone is basically a portable human GPS tracking system already.. and plus a secret microphone/camera backdoor that allows the feds to voice and visual spy on you at any time... so lets say you walk over to your corner Jack in the Crack fast food restaurant which comes with public wifi... your mobile device in your pocket connects without your permission and bang ... since it running Android Google automatically knows were you are without you even being connected to the internet or surfing the web or even turning on the phone at all...

Since when that self driving car was running around spying on everybody Google already MAPPED the GPS location with visual imagery of say that Jack in the Crack store WITH its Wifi data... means whenever you get in range of ANY hotspot, etc Google ALREADY automatically know where you are because that correposndes with/to the GPS location of said Wifi when Google first scouted and mapped that place in the first place! they would know this info even if you turned GPS off on your phone or your phone didn't even have GPS functionality! That is the power of VISUAL + WIFI + GPS.... you don't need Google Translate to know you SCREWED in the A$$
Google played innocent at first but of COURSE they purposefully did this: http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/28/543181/
The data is too precious for google not to spy ...

Since Google has eigenvector that extrapolation technology like tineye and google image that does reverse image similiartity searches (and also facial recongiation) basically if they have a visual pic of a house they can know its GPS location, and any Wifi near range... If they have Wifi info they can provide a pic and GPS, if they have GPS they can pointpoint a visual or Wifi... it is all interconnected... so many ways Google can screw you...

This is a sign of the times.... No wonder Larry Page said resources aren't running out.. we will all be his energy slaves.

The real annoying thing is Google is now deep throating Google+ into everyone's lifes.. if you use Youtube, Chrome, Gmail you will soon know what I mean. It will be deeply integrated into everything you can't run away from Google's pimping of the plus.

This is why you need to use Firefox (not Chrome), Bing (lesser of two evils), Skype (vs Google Voice), and get adblocker plus extension on the firefox with ads and privacy filters or better yet configure your hosts file or router / firewall to block all things google .... Use Vimeo instead of Youtube. Microsoft office online as opposed to Google Docs/Drive... and Dropbox or Amazon S3 instead of Google Drive ..

It is best to kick the Google habit now than to be trapped later on.... most people trust Google like it is some kind of hippie be happy company that "does no evil"... that is double-think... what does it tell you of a company that slogan is to proclaim that it doesn't do evil? It tells me that is a CIA front.... just like Wikileaks, and so many other things.... sly... cunning....

Chinese government don't be slamming Google for no reason... Maybe CCP knows something the average Amerikan netizen dont'?

[Pops]

... he is trying to propagandize the sheeple into believing the hype of the dream so he can get a bigger piece of his pie on the top echelons of the ponzi pyramid scheme.

Wow, that is a mouthful!

[cloud_surfer]

Why does Google keep asking for my phone number? Facebook is starting to do this as well.

They claim it is for security, (two factor authentication) but in reality it all has to do with the shift towards MOBILE, and Google marketing needs to know your demographic information, what type of phone you use, your carrier... where you go, what you do.... all so they can better sell you to advertisers and to help NSA build its massive database. etc You know the adage, if you aren't paying for the product, you ARE the product.

Can anyone say “conspiracy theorist”!
If you like these organizations or not 2FA (two-factor authentication) is a legit service offered by many on-line organizations. 2FA is where the user is asked to telesign into their account by entering a one-time PIN code which is delivered to your phone via SMS or voice. Or if you don't want to do this every single time, some offer the option to designate your smartphone, PC, or tablet as a trusted device and they will allow you to enter without the text code. Should an attempt to login from an unrecognized device happen, it would not be allowed. Oh yeah… the NSA had your number before these organizations asked for it!!!

[Tanada]

Before their hour-long interview with Glenn Beck on Monday, Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen made some comments that Beck thinks will “drive the left out of their mind.”

Speaking about Beck’s move from traditional media to building his own network, TheBlaze, Schmidt said people in his industry are “shocked at how successfully he navigated this transition.”

“He is the success story from traditional media,” Schmidt said. “And people are going to be studying what Glenn did for years, and trying to replicate it. To have a model where you have Internet and cable companies working together — it’s extraordinary.”

Cohen added that he recalled from prior interviews with Beck at Headline News that he and Beck shared “the exact same view” on terrorism, that “nobody is born wanting to do this.”

“And I remember being really amazed by his depth of knowledge about some of the … conditions in the Middle East or elsewhere that are driving radicalization,” Cohen added.

“You don’t get to this level without really being deeply intelligent about these things,” Schmidt concluded with a shrug. “All of these people at this level of fame and reach — this is just the most successful one of all.”

[Subjectivist]

Google executive makes worlds highest free fall jump!

Google senior vice president Alan Eustace just beat the world record for highest-altitude space jump, The New York Times reports.

A helium-filled balloon carried him 135,908 feet to nearly the top of the stratosphere — more than 25 miles — above the ground, before he cut himself loose and plunged toward the earth at speeds that peaked at more than 800 miles per hour.

Observers on the ground heard a small sonic boom, though Eustace says he did not hear or feel it.

Eustace did two backflips in the air before his small parachute righted him, The Times reports. After four-and-a-half minutes, he opened his main parachute, eventually landing 70 miles from the launch site.

"It was amazing," he told The Times. "It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I've never seen before."

The previous altitude record was set by Austrian Felix Baumgartner, who jumped from 128,100 feet in 2012 as a stunt for Red Bull.

More at the link, plus pictures.
http://www.businessinsider.com/alan-eus ... z3HBs7tzRg

[Tanada]

SJW's working for Google corporation are losing their marbles because someone not only spoke out about the evils of Political Correctness, the 'guilty' party has not been publicly destroyed and fired for speaking out. Tweets from the offended at link below the quote.

Following the circulation of an internal memo criticizing Google’s restrictive PC workplace environment, employees have freaked out, calling for the memo’s author to be fired.

A software engineer at Google published a ten-page memo where he criticized “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,” resulting in controversy amongst employees within the Google+ internal social network. The author argues within the memo that women are underrepresented in tech fields not because of discrimination, but because of inherent psychological differences between men and women, echoing a similar argument made by former Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos in 2016. When discussing Google’s educational guidelines for young women, the memo’s author writes, “We need to stop assuming that gender gaps imply sexism.”

The allegations of political intolerance come shortly after YouTube, a Google-owned platform, announced it would manipulate search results, artificially promote socially progressive videos, and censor non-rulebreaking content that is considered “potential hate speech.” The company is also partnering with the ADL and other left-wing organizations to identify “hate speech” on the platform.

In the document, the author accused Google of shunning intellectual diversity, saying:

I value diversity and inclusion, am not denying that sexism exists, and don’t endorse using stereotypes. When addressing the gap in representation in the population, we need to look at population level differences in distributions. If we can’t have an honest discussion about this, then we can never truly solve the problem. Psychological safety is built on mutual respect and acceptance, but unfortunately our culture of shaming and misrepresentation is disrespectful and unaccepting of anyone outside its echo chamber.

The author writes that he is not the only employee at Google who has noticed the restrictive culture in the workplace:

Despite what the public response seems to have been, I’ve gotten many personal messages from fellow Googlers expressing their gratitude for bringing up these very important issues which they agree with but would never have the courage to say or defend because of our shaming culture and the possibility of being fired. This needs to change.

Later in the document, the author discusses the possible reasoning behind gender bias in the tech field:

At Google, we’re regularly told that implicit (unconscious) and explicit biases are holding women back in tech and leadership. Of course, men and women experience bias, tech, and the workplace differently and we should be cognizant of this, but it’s far from the whole story.

On average, men and women biologically differ in many ways. These differences aren’t just socially constructed because:

They’re universal across human cultures
They often have clear biological causes and links to prenatal testosterone
Biological males that were castrated at birth and raised as females often still identify and act like males
The underlying traits are highly heritable
They’re exactly what we would predict from an evolutionary psychology perspective

Shortly after the publication of the document, which can be read in full on Gizmodo, Google’s Vice President of Diversity, Integrity, and Governance Danielle Brown issued a statement on the memo:

Googlers,

I’m Danielle, Google’s brand new VP of Diversity, Integrity & Governance. I started just a couple of weeks ago, and I had hoped to take another week or so to get the lay of the land before introducing myself to you all. But given the heated debate we’ve seen over the past few days, I feel compelled to say a few words.

Many of you have read an internal document shared by someone in our engineering organization, expressing views on the natural abilities and characteristics of different genders, as well as whether one can speak freely of these things at Google. And like many of you, I found that it advanced incorrect assumptions about gender. I’m not going to link to it here as it’s not a viewpoint that I or this company endorses, promotes or encourages.

Diversity and inclusion are a fundamental part of our values and the culture we continue to cultivate. We are unequivocal in our belief that diversity and inclusion are critical to our success as a company, and we’ll continue to stand for that and be committed to it for the long haul. As Ari Balogh said in his internal G+ post, “Building an open, inclusive environment is core to who we are, and the right thing to do. ‘Nuff said. “

Google has taken a strong stand on this issue, by releasing its demographic data and creating a company wide OKR on diversity and inclusion. Strong stands elicit strong reactions. Changing a culture is hard, and it’s often uncomfortable. But I firmly believe Google is doing the right thing, and that’s why I took this job.

Part of building an open, inclusive environment means fostering a culture in which those with alternative views, including different political views, feel safe sharing their opinions. But that discourse needs to work alongside the principles of equal employment found in our Code of Conduct, policies, and anti-discrimination laws.

I’ve been in the industry for a long time, and I can tell you that I’ve never worked at a company that has so many platforms for employees to express themselves—TGIF, Memegen, internal G+, thousands of discussion groups. I know this conversation doesn’t end with my email today. I look forward to continuing to hear your thoughts as I settle in and meet with Googlers across the company.

Thanks,

Danielle

According to leaked documents from Google’s internal employee messaging platform, many Googlers were not happy with the memo and responded with anger towards the author and Google for not reacting to the memo in a stronger manner.

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/08/0 ... tolerance/

[AgentR11]

The problem with "on average" is that the language is often used, directed at individuals to deny them opportunity, when in fact, an "on average" statement says absolutely nothing about any particular individual. (I oppose imposed quotas on a similar ground, fwiw).

eg, my daughter has zero issues with tech, math, science, etc, and is looking forward to pursuing a degree in civil or mech engineering. (grades and scores are entirely sufficient) "On average" tells you nothing about her individual capabilities, characteristics, or strengths.