Analysis of a hypothetical mission: Manned Missions to the Outer System

It’s the radiation constraint that pushes our propulsion technologies well past current capabilities, shortening acceptable trip times and demanding speeds that in our current context are almost surreal. Back in 1968, Clarke and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey sent the ‘Discovery 1′ mission to Jupiter without evident regard for radiation shielding, and young optimists like me in the audience assumed that the outer planets would be within reach some time in the early 21st Century. Now we’re talking about putting together a set of missions that vaguely resemble Clarke and Kubrick’s a century later than the film had supposed.

Not only about a century after 2001, but very expensive too:

All of this adds up to huge costs, some $4 trillion, which compares to a US GDP of $13 trillion in 2006 and a world GDP in the same year of $48 trillion. The five expeditions to the outer planets would clearly demand an international initiative, one that would cost 1.5 times the U.S. cost of World War II in 2006 dollars.

At the strategy meeting yesterday, we got some bullshit about how the new British government wants to cut salaries in the public sector, so we were already suspecting that the pay freeze would continue. (Nevermind that we're a commercial company in the States...the mothership is British and that's what counts!)

Hahaha! I so am those little old ladies in Hawaii. We`ve been wearing flip-flops for generations, we just call them slippers. Zori. My sister stopped wearing them because her husband hates the flappy noise, and I call that downright oppressive. Also, they don`t have to be flappy. But yes, I have indoor slippers and outdoor slippers, and there`s a transaction at the shoe bench just inside the house. The SO wears shoes in the house and I tried to stop him once and he was all, why, and I was all...because it`s Not Done. But you know, our house is all tile and all pet furred, and it`s his house so he can wear `em if he wants `em. He does most of the sweeping and mopping anyway.

Also, they don`t have to be flappy.

How are they not flappy? And still flip floppy?

Ok, there`s a technique, I dunno how to describe, where you mildly grip with your toes, and the whole sole comes up and down with your foot, and I dunno...but it`s quiet. I swears.

Liese has prehensile toes, pass it on.

I`m in the throes of slipper despair, though, because my amazing manufacturer in Honolulu closed down and I am uncertain where to get a suitable replacement. Despite one billion cheapo ones being available.

When I met the DH, I tended to wear long smocky dresses. Give my broad shoulders and wide hips, they made me look not unlike a linebacker in drag, but they were comfy. He convinced me to try wearing jeans on the grounds of "also comfy", and not only were they also comfy, they didn't need ironing and I didn't have to worry about the hems catching on my heels and tripping me on stairs! And I got lots of compiments, so I was glad I tried them.

I don't mind an SO (or a friend) asking me to try something new (accepting suggestions is a good way to keep out of a rut, IMO), but if I hadn't liked them, I certainly wouldn't have kept wearing them.

Hee. It is possible I have prehensile toes. I do pick stuff up with my feet rather than bend over.

We have a shoe bench right inside the foyer (foyer straightening is On The List for this week) but D while D. will take his shoes off in the winter, in the summer, it's a no go. I dunno why. I rarely see his feet.

Growing up in the country, I was a hard-hoofed barefoot hooligan, and I take shoes off as soon as I can get 'em off. The dirt/fur doesn't bother me. As a kid, my feet were so hard, I could walk over glass.

As a grown-up, NSM, but I still wear as little shoes as I can get away with.