paulsutton

Mission attempt on 29th August scrubbed : https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2022/08/29/launch-attempt-scrubbed/

Yes, but that was one example, so on reflection was a bad example/ However maybe the question should be was Babbage aware of similar devices to those you mention, did something perhaps inspire him to make his difference engine ? e.g Jacquard Loom controller from 1801

The current lot are in limbo until the new PM is in pace, then who knows what will happen. I agree with the Lib Dems and Labour - recall parliament. The current PM is AWOL. However people in the real world can save up their annual leave and take that during their notice period (so maybe he is doing that) but when it comes to running a county, he should be running the country. Deputy PM seems to be AWOL too, but he was during last years Afghan crisis So back to being in Limbo, this seems to be out of choice, Just a shambles

How concerned should we be about the upcoming potential of mass strike action in the UK? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62706769 Just getting the thoughts of people on this.

Is there not some sort of archaeological evidence that ancient civilisations may have had some sort of mechanical calculating devices. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56377567 I wonder if Charles Babbage had knew about any of this or perhaps influenced in some way before building his 'difference engine'

Back in the 80's Research machines a UK company making computers (IMP compatible) had manuals, but random pages would be special paper that turned black if photocopied, it was a sort of copy protection. I wonder if top secret documents would be printed on such paper, then again with PDF there is no need to print or should not be unless you do intend to write notes or need to sign in ink .

And there are people who want him back in power, I suppose to dictators he is the perfect 'useful idiot'

So is this standard procedure with other presidents or just with Donald Trump, as in would Obama, Clinton, or Kennedy have asked someone else to read a document of such importance. it seems as commander in chief you have responsibilities htat if you pass these to others it would for a lot of normal jobs amount to a gross dereliction of duty and result in dismissal. The police chief in Uvalde was sacked for not going in to the school, but his reaction is to try and say lack of evidence, which given there is video footage of police standing by and it ends up being another team going in to deal with the situation, this seems typical of those in power, never their fault. We get the same nonsense here in the UK social workers / police fail to act, as a result children come to harm, but these officials try and wriggle out of accepting some responsibility and find some other person to blame. I wonder how other countries see the USA right now over all this, esp countries such as China, North Korea and Russia, they must be laughing at you over all this. The US needs a strong ROBUST leader and as trump said "clear the swamp" and restore the US as a country that can lead by example and stand up to bullies at home and abroad.

Just replying to my post to include a link to the Launch schedule on the NASA website https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-sets-launch-coverage-for-artemis-mega-moon-rocket-spacecraft

Thank you for this , makes things more scary but at least a little clearer. But it does make sense. Fully agreed., lets not go there. Paul

I would guess the main difference between1930s and now is we have the internet, but as we have determined little in the way of critical thinking skills.

Interesting artifice so i guess the fear about Trump being president is now rearing its head again only the world (and the us) has changed so much since 2016 (BLM, Pandemic) that the momentum for change is stronger or he will be back as president again. I can understand the removal of the confederate flag , but should we remove(Ban) ALL symbols relating to this including statues,? we need some reminder what happened so hopefully future generations can learn. in the same way as we need to remember what happened in Germany in the 1930s.

A lot of this seems very similar what happened in Germany during the 1930s as Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power and tried to create a master race and remove anyone who didn't fit in to the Aryan race profile. Of course learning history you see parallels, by rewriting this out of history (or trying to) there is no historical event timeline to make comparisons to., With critical thinking and questioning you can challenge the propaganda. "dark-skinned athletes pushing them out of sport teams" Reminds me of remember the titans (film) but that is based on a true story, I am not going to say too much as I don't want to in inadvertently add in a spoiler. But that was set in 1971 so around the time of Nixon, and as stated earlier post Nixon was about the time everything started to go wrong.

Well the current shooting of a 9 year old girl (white) is hitting the headlines more, very little about the other similar incidents in Liverpool over the past week https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-62658221 So yeah, getting a proper picture of what is going on is rather difficult, because one news story can dominate so much of the news (1.2 hour programme) it leaves little time for other stories to be covered. Look at the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021, it dominated the news, at the same time there was a major earthquake in Haiti (I think) which barely made the news, until some arrived in the US as refugees and were apparently deported

Yes I can see that happening here, more and more of our NHS is in private hands via various contracts, it is very hard here for people to find an NHS dentist for example. By dumbing down TV, (people seem obsessed with reality tv) and the news we are not doing anyone any favous, there are good science programs on. We have a serious knife crime problem here (alone) and no one seems willing or capable of debating the issue, the causes and what we should do to stop it. So it just carries on, innocent people dying and no one gets a grip. At least there are other channels e,g ITV and Channel 4 that also have news, but with a different perspective so to get a objective view watch more than 1 news source. On a slight tangent here, what came out of that story from a month or two ago, where a truck was found on the US side of the US / Mexico border with immigrants (mostly dead I think) in the back having been smuggled across the border. The driver escaped I think but may have been apprehended. It hit the news here, then went silent. It seems human life is, to many not worth very much, when money is involved, so that seems to link with people being in as you said "slave workforce".

I think you have a valid point here, people are worried their way of life will be some how impacted by immigration oddly immigration can bring a new perspective to a community, new food from shops opening up selling different goods to other shops. It is a case of being open minded and opening doors to your new community members and making them feel welcome. What has happened in the Uk for example is that say a community centre has closed (lack of use) and it gets turned in to a Mosque for example, so for this Muslims are likely to be blamed, not the fact that the community allowed the centre to become unused.

Agreed, we are sleepwalking in to oblivion, well the west is at least.

IIRC social media played a big part in this, apparently people in areas where there were immigrants were fed a narrative that there was also a high crime rate, so they would buy the election propaganda that we need a border wall etc. But off topic, over here in the UK lots of young people are using small canisters of Nitros Oxide (it is the new party drug apparently) but the narrative is spread on social media. so others follow suit, despite the fact it is dangerous So while social media plays a part in all this, we probably need a better education system that teaches critical thinking,

well if we get 4 more years of trump or someone like him, the west is probably finished,

I think due to the way the media (or some of it) reports things, the reality gets rather skewed. But when you put it the way you did, I agree with you on this, it was a bad move. just makes people more worried what will happen if he gets in again. Didn't trump try the same thing with Putin ? with what seems a similar result. Why I am here rather than on 'social media' better more constructive discussions. I don't mnd making errors in how I have interpreted something because the response here is rational and explained.

What I meant was, if we had 'none of the above' on a voting form, then it would probably win, i think people on both sides of the Atlantic are just fed up with the current choices of political party. I think replied to "I'm in for $10 on "none of the above". But posts got merged, so something was lost on the way, sorry. Paul

I seems that who ever is in power President / party , it ends up being down to who controls the upper house (senate if I understand things) as to if things get through. Unless the president signs executive orders (which trump did seem to sign quite a few) Solving the underlying problems, that are behind many of the larger problems is, as with the UK going to require a long term strategy Right now in the UK we have a cost of living crisis, a crime problem and many other issues, our MPs are on summer recess and we are also waiting to find out who windows the Conservative leadership race, all this while people are struggling to make ends meet. Until then we seem to be in Limbo as no one wants to make a decision until the new leader is in place. Both sides have ideas, no one which seem to be long term, we need common ground, Western politics seems to be broken on both sides of the Atlantic, but America is seen as a country that takes the lead, and needs to be strong for others to follow and for the west to stand up to aggression.. Granted Donald Trump was also right when he said other NATO countries need to pay their way fully too. I don't exactly agree with Donald Trump on many things, but I did like the fact he tried to reach out and talk to North Korea, regardless, surely dialogue is better than mistrust and actions that could risk all out war. In the absence of other ideas. Paul I am sure that if that was on the voting form it would win a landslide victory on BOTH sides of the Atlantic, which may kick modern politics in to changing their course.

So from a UK perspective, which one of those is better?

Lol, Oops

Yes, I read that too, should be fairly simple, but you may need a lot of molten sulphur for that to produce a nice amount of sulphur with the rubbery properties. Melting in a test tube, if you try and pour in to water it ends up solidifying before it reaches the end of the tube, last time I tried that was years ago, so was about 14/15 at the time and had to do chem outside at that point as I was banned from the kitchen