2017.11.19 01:00 - Money to Waste, on Space

The Guardian for this meeting was Wol Euler.

Wol Euler: buongiorno Qt
Qt Core: Hi Wol
Wol Euler: have you had any snow yet?
Qt Core: no, anly above 1000/1500 meters and i'm at about 140
Wol Euler: oh, so low?
Wol Euler: I thought Milan was much higher
Qt Core: but i saw it on the nearby mountains, just melted away in couple days
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: we've had frost on car windows here overnight, and several times I've felt the air and said "might snow tomorrow", but nothing yet
Qt Core: yes, thes week temps dropped some 10 degrees here, but not below 3.4 C i think
Wol Euler nods.
Qt Core: silly enough the law state that i have to get snow tires on my car not before 15 Oct and nt after 15 november... have my appointment for that on 29 november ;-)
Qt Core: before last week it was warm enough to really damage snow tires
Wol Euler: right
Wol Euler: climate change is real. Just look around you.
Wol Euler: that law proves it
Qt Core: and then snow before mid/late december is quite rare in the plains
Qt Core: but still, as Lombardy is alf and half plains and mountains/hills that's the law
Wol Euler nods.

Wol Euler: what about all-year tires?
Wol Euler: <- non-car-driver
Qt Core: it seems they arrived in our market just this and past year, mau have to check about them, i really like how winter tires are better on wet/iced road
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: sure, they exist for a reason
Qt Core: don;t know if that is a good thing or a sign of being an idiot driver getting to the boint of feeling the difference and being an horrible driver
Wol Euler: heheheheheh
Qt Core: (back to the main issue of italian driving: if you stay under the limits you risk to be hit from behind)

--BELL--

Wol Euler: that does't surprise me at all!
Wol Euler: I remember madness on the roads in Italy
Qt Core: main example, a road i take daily, it has 60 khm limit (they brought it down from 70 instead of redoing the asphalt) i;m passed by everyone if i stay at 85/90
Wol Euler: wow
Wol Euler: and does nobody do anything about it?
Wol Euler: there are radar operated cameras on the roads in germany, if you are speeding you just get a perfectly clear photo and a bill in the mail. It's incontestable, the only legal defence is if you can prove that the person in the *perfectly clear* photo is not you.
Qt Core: some speed cameras where added past year on nearby roads, where there is soome speeding too, but where queues are more common too (more crossing and roundabouts)
Wol Euler: cities love them, it's free money
Qt Core: yes, we have those, just last year seven where added just on my 19km commute
Qt Core: but it seems they were installed but aren't activated yet
Wol Euler: ha
Wol Euler: smells like politics
Wol Euler: "look, look! we are addressing the problem! now be quiet."
Qt Core: (it seems the new models are even checking if the car is insured and/or paid car taxes
Qt Core: (strangely enough that municipality had elections last year ;-) )
Wol Euler: what a surprise!
Wol Euler: the cross-checking is sensible, given that all that information is available on the city/state's computers anyway
Qt Core: i'm thinking about putting a sticker on my car saying something like "i'm not slow, i'm saving fuel" (it is incredible how much less you consume staying below the limits)

--BELL--

Wol Euler nods.
Qt Core: here you don't have to have the insurance certificate visible on your car, it is checked electronically (you still have to have it IN your car if there is no signal, for example)
Wol Euler nods.
Qt Core: same with car tax
Qt Core: this past summer, fighting my fears i went here (it is in milan city center and i didn't even knew it existed): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_Branca
Qt Core: https://www.google.it/search?q=torre...w=1111&bih=993
Wol Euler: yes I remember talking about this with you, it had just been restored and re-opened
Qt Core: yes, i was thinking about the snow capped mountains sights you can get from there
Wol Euler: right
Qt Core: luckily in my work route i have a couple road leading straight t north and onw west/est with a free north side, so i can see a lot of them (when the sky is clear ) on my way
Qt Core: i get views like this: https://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/.../105523922.jpg
Wol Euler: that's nice
Wol Euler: yes, that's why I was surprised that you weren't at a higher altitude
Qt Core: that mountains is called Resegone, a local way to say "Big saw)
Wol Euler: it seems to me that you are barely out of the mountains before the train stops in the station
Qt Core: google says that by var there are 83 km from milan to Resegone
Qt Core: var=car
Wol Euler: colour me surprised :)
Wol Euler: time and distance both stretch :)

Qt Core: another distance that amaze me... the iss (our further outpost in space is about 400Km above s, less than the distance between Milan and Rome (about 450)... while back in the '60 we went to the moon, some 380,000 km from earth... we got way lazy!

Wol Euler: O.O

--BELL--

Wol Euler: that is amazing
Qt Core: even worse if we consiser that since then no man weent higher than something around 630 Km when deploying or repairing the Hubble i think
Qt Core: geostationary satellites ar still (automatically) deployed ar 36,000km
Wol Euler: that really shows what a thin film stretched over the planet's surface we live in
Wol Euler: it feels huge, but it's really paper-thin
Qt Core: sure, and just a meteor away from destruction ;-)
Wol Euler: mmhmm :)
Wol Euler: well, it won't need a meteor, because we are trying hard to destroy it ourselves
Wol Euler: just let us carry on as we are now for another hundred years, and it'll be gone
Qt Core: well many enjoy DIY, right ;-)
Wol Euler: but hey we created so much shareholder value!

Qt Core: many believe that the only way to space will be the private, let's exploit it and make money one
Qt Core: and sadly it may be
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: given that we all demand tax breaks, no government has the money to "waste" on exploring space
Qt Core: as there are no tech fallout for everyone from that, right.
Wol Euler: of coruse
Wol Euler: it's not as though the American space program brought any benefits to us.
Wol Euler: teflon, velcro, computers ... nah
Qt Core: at the peak of the Apollo project it seems that there were some 2,000,000 people working directly or not for that
Wol Euler: mmhmm
Qt Core: but it was all a scam we know it
Qt Core: ;-)
Wol Euler: right
Wol Euler: the moon landing was faked. Those "satellite" photos are all just Photoshop

--BELL--

Wol Euler: but the Bible is literally true, every word, even the words that contradict other words!
Qt Core: just thinking about it now, if the earth is flat is also the moon flat ?
Qt Core: it is just a stain on the sky sphere, right
Wol Euler: that one can be disproved in one sentence: if the world were flat, we would all see the sun at the same angle, and there would be no time zones.
Wol Euler: every city everywhere on the planet would experience sunrise in the very same second.
Qt Core: but that can be proved opnly by revolutionaries that travels,,,
Wol Euler: well, no.
Wol Euler: oh come, we all have telephones. call somebody
Wol Euler: really.
Wol Euler: and also: it can be proved by thinking for a second or two
Wol Euler: flat means flat.
Wol Euler: follow that thought to its end
Qt Core: you follow the scriptures, not thoughs, they may be devil inspired ;-)
Wol Euler: ha
Qt Core: (i love too much to be the devil's advocate)
Wol Euler smiles.
Qt Core: and juts yesterday went t listen about ideas on how to go visiting or even establishig a colony on Mars
Wol Euler: oh?
Qt Core: and they were even old ideas even late '80 i think
Wol Euler nods.
Qt Core: summing it up, let's start with autonomous landers that would start producing the fuel to come back so not to have to ship it from here
Wol Euler nods.
Qt Core: that would decrease the costs down to 10% of the simpler lets make it a big ship and just one trip
Qt Core: (there are still hopes for my generation to see a man if not on mars at least around mars)
Qt Core: but only if i take good care of myself ;-)
Wol Euler: heheheheh
Wol Euler: perhaps that can be your incentive
Wol Euler: are you still riding your bicycle?`
Qt Core: no, this year i didn't even get it out once
Wol Euler: awww
Wol Euler: next year.
Qt Core: and i even stopped going to (and later paying for) the gym
Wol Euler: O.O
Qt Core: but then i even had surgery on my elbow in late may
Wol Euler: well that is an excuse for a few months
Wol Euler: but next year ... :)
Qt Core: (but the stress of these past months kept my weight on check)
Wol Euler nods.

--BELL--

Qt Core: and on such happy thoughts i need to go, cooking time.
Wol Euler: heheh
Wol Euler: enjoy the day, dear Qt
Qt Core: bye Wol, have fun.