> discussed across a wide breadth of hard science fiction novels and stories.
It's a cool idea, but the reality is centuries away. Three points to consider:
1 - Useful spacecraft are generally bleeding-edge technology, with lots of ways for tiny faults put them out of action. We're not talking wooden rowboats here.
2 - The number of deep-mastery experts needed to build a spacecraft "from scratch" is huge. Talk to someone who's even vaguely familiar with the staffing requirements for a modern chip fab, and its whole supply chain.
3 - As technology advances, the number of experts in point #2 keeps growing. And the self-replicating spacecraft will, in effect, need all of their smarts "built in".
> ... it takes incredible levels of incompetence to be lost in sinay for 40 years.
That 40 years wandering in the wilderness was "lost" only in a poetic or opportunity cost sense. More literally, it was divinely-assigned Punishment Detail:
FWIW, I live near the Univ. of Michigan. I've talked to a well-to-do stockbroker, who graduated from U-M a couple decades ago - but can't believe just how opulent U-M's latest round of rebuilding their old undergraduate dorms was.
Suffice to say that none of his own ample wealth is going to the U.
The article seems rather focused on political/ideological issues.
Practical issues include where tens or hundreds of millions of new A/C units could be obtained, who would install them, and whether the European grid could cope with the resulting situation.
Those issues could have substantial lead times. Maybe Europe's leaders should be doing something useful?
Old geezer question: Are you thinking to make education free? Or to give everyone 4+ years at the upscale-lifestyle-resorts-with-classes which the US's major universities have evolved into over the past half century?
I was thinking about the senior leadership, not the junior enlisted on the firing line.
For KSU, Wikipedia notes -
> The shootings caused an immediate closure of the campus with students and faculty given just 60 minutes to pack belongings. [...] In Kent, schools were closed and the National Guard restricted entry into the city limits, patrolling the area until May 8. With the campus closed, faculty members came up with a variety of solutions—including holding classes in their homes, at public buildings and places, via telephone, or through the mail—to allow their students to complete the term, which was only a few weeks away at the time.
- which doesn't sound like "academic success", nor bragging rights for KSU's leadership, nor useful to their recruiting and fundraising efforts.
And that I recall, the shootings didn't work out so well for the Pentagon, either. Public support for their war in SE Asia failed to solidify. Major downsizings of the Army, Navy, etc. continued. Military conscription was eliminated, and recruiting promising young Americans to serve was not easy.
> A 2021 state law allows campus police to own military equipment for civilian safety – students fear it may be used to quash dissent
<sigh/> Maybe they should ask their History Dept's - or whatever is left of those - how well the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_massacre actually worked out, for the sides which had the guns and "won"? A competent Evil Chancellor would make sure that their dirty work was done by the State Police, ICE, or some other "outsiders" fall guy.
The article mentions "training" all of once, in the phrase "at least annual". Not good. If there's something worse than an angry confrontation between students and over-armed campus security, it's an angry confrontation between students and over-armed but under-trained campus security.
(Yes, in theory the stuff could be intended for active shooter situations. But even allowing for the Guardian's open relationship with factual reporting, it just doesn't sound like that.)
> Volkswagen says this is one of Europe’s most advanced industrial agrivoltaics projects because it also includes a major scientific research program.
> “Today, the photovoltaic farm delivers much more than green electricity. It has also become a place that supports biodiversity, local agriculture, and scientific research. The sheep grazing project demonstrates that modern industry can work in harmony with nature,” said Marzena Pillich-Grońska, director of Volkswagen Poznań.
> The project is being carried out with Poznań University of Life Sciences, whose researchers are studying how sheep grazing affects animal welfare, biodiversity, soil quality, vegetation, and the site’s microclimate. The goal is to better understand how large-scale solar generation and agriculture can successfully cohabit on the same land.
Sounds like a horribly overblown gentrification & PR exercise.
Maybe VW should focus their research & marketing efforts on automobiles, and let a local shepherd quietly handle the woolly details?
Not saying that spraying would be the best solution to the problem - but the article seems rather obsessed with the possibility that glyphosate might be carcinogenic.
Vs. I've heard that fire and smoke are far more certain dangers to human life and health.
> A homegrown catnip lotion has proven “just as effective as Deet” as a mosquito repellant in trials carried out in Uganda.
While this is good news...a quick realty check, for those unfamiliar:
Malaria, which is transmitted by mosquito bites, kills ~16,000 Ugandans per year. That is a profoundly different social and economic situation from what mosquito repellents face in most of the world.
Also, the research is aimed straight at local, low-tech production in Uganda. Criteria like "shelf stable", "no unpleasant odor", and "doesn't stain clothing" could be very low priorities.
These days, "don't have access" is a micro-market. Everywhere else, indoor growing has to compete with the cost & delay of importing. Last I heard, even Antarctic bases are only growing a few fresh veggies - 99% of their food is imported. (Well, plant-based food. They might do a fair bit of fishing.)
> CEA has been used ...
My comment was replying to magemaster's "large scale vertical farms ... just technologist delusions".* Vs. greenhouses - which can be little more than plastic sheeting over light wooden framing over sunlit dirt - yes, those have far saner economics. Mushrooms - which can be grown in dark caves without dirt using prehistoric technology - are also a very different thing.
*To quote Wikipedia - "The modern concept of vertical farming was proposed in 1999 by Dickson Despommier, professor of Public and Environmental Health at Columbia University.[2] Despommier and his students came up with a design of a skyscraper farm that could feed 50,000 people."
Over the years, many firms have poured many $millions into vertical farms.
If you're growing extreme-value crops - marijuana, or maybe exotic salad greens for Michelin-starred restaurants - that can actually work.
Otherwise, you're trying to compete with millions of square miles of naturally sun-lit dirt, and extremely efficient modern agro-tech stacks. Bankruptcy awaits.
> just technologist delusions of mine?
I'd bet you've read several articles about techno-utopians setting up vertical farms, and their grand dreams. Which always hand-wave the "how can this massively expensive setup complete with dirt?" part.
Farming sun-lit dirt does not magically require monoculture, nor poor farming practices. The problems is monoculture's appeal to certain human cultures - especially profit-maximizing "big ag" capitalists - and the agricultural policies enacted by naive politicians.
It's a cool idea, but the reality is centuries away. Three points to consider:
1 - Useful spacecraft are generally bleeding-edge technology, with lots of ways for tiny faults put them out of action. We're not talking wooden rowboats here.
2 - The number of deep-mastery experts needed to build a spacecraft "from scratch" is huge. Talk to someone who's even vaguely familiar with the staffing requirements for a modern chip fab, and its whole supply chain.
3 - As technology advances, the number of experts in point #2 keeps growing. And the self-replicating spacecraft will, in effect, need all of their smarts "built in".