The Country Which Has Had The Most Impact on The Modern World

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Originally Posted by Vladimir

But no, really, read up on your Cold War history. The only way the Soviet military maintained a near technological parity with the west was through espionage. More delicately, but in equal volume, to what China does today.

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I thought there was some academic debate that the soviet programme was possibly a proof of convergent thought.

Beforehand the soviets might conclude atomic bombs were impossible but now they knew it could be done so they merely had to craft an answer.

It's like how writing might have developed because people knew writing was possible.

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Originally Posted by gaelic cowboy

I thought there was some academic debate that the soviet programme was possibly a proof of convergent thought.

Beforehand the soviets might conclude atomic bombs were impossible but now they knew it could be done so they merely had to craft an answer.

It's like how writing might have developed because people knew writing was possible.

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There were a lot of brilliant Soviet scientists but they couldn't afford proper research so they had to take shortcuts.

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Originally Posted by Vladimir

No. EDGY TODAY! :angry:

Let's start with the most gentile of showers where the water flowed delicately out of the showerhead and moistened my skin this morning. I had to keep checking to make sure it wasn't yellow, not that I would know what's that like or anything :worried:.

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Ok, sorry. On a day like that , you certainly don't need me proving you wrong.

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Originally Posted by Sarmatian

Ok, sorry. On a day like that , you certainly don't need me proving you wrong.

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:laugh4:

Yes, I know. :drama2:

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Originally Posted by Strike For The South

For me it comes down to two Countries The UK And France

I say France because England is terribly boring, Scotland is like Alabama, and no one cares about the Welsh.

The only good thing to come out of England was the Sunday fry up and my mum

France on the other hand gave us modern government,law,medicine,sex,sport, rock & roll, and philosiphy

Vive Le Francios

Vive Le Republique

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only one thing need be said to refute that:

Common Law.

but why stop there:

Gunboats
Dreadnoughts
Gin palaces
etc

Apart from the moon landing USSR has been leading the space race. First satellite, animal, man, woman in space. Most tonnage lifted. Ability to use standard fuels due to advanced porous metallurgy.

That and right now as we speak the US of A has to hitch hike to the international space station on Russian space craft.

NASA spent millions getting a pen to work in zero g. The russians use a pencil. Genuine genius solutions are elegant.

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

Apart from the moon landing USSR has been leading the space race. First satellite, animal, man, woman in space. Most tonnage lifted. Ability to use standard fuels due to advanced porous metallurgy.

That and right now as we speak the US of A has to hitch hike to the international space station on Russian space craft.

NASA spent millions getting a pen to work in zero g. The russians use a pencil. Genuine genius solutions are elegant.

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Why do people repeat this stuff???

NASA spent like $3 a pen, it was an independent company that developed them as a marketing gimmick or something (don't remember why). And if you break the tip of the pencil lead in zero G in floats around and can screw things up. They also burn very easily.

The story of the space race is quite interesting, no need to repeat urban legends and propaganda. The Russian program was all about firsts and things like 'first woman in space' that they could brag about., that's an insult to it not a compliment. The US was mainly concerned with spy satellites I think, and dragged their heels on launching their first satellite because sputnik solved a lot of problems for them regarding sovereignty of air space.

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Originally Posted by Sasaki Kojiro

If you break the tip of the pencil lead in zero G in floats around and can screw things up. They also burn very easily.

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I don't know what the cost or the origins of the pen are; but the above two points are quite frankly irrelevant. There's more than just pencil tips floating around in your average manned spacecraft, and unless you're deliberately experimenting with open fire or sparks the tip will not ignite (auto ignition temps being rather higher than what you want to expose your astronauts to). Matches tend to work rather better if you daisy-chain phosporos tip to sulphur to graphite to match stick as you don't end up smearing graphite all over the matchbox.

Space race... Not much of a race with no manned lift capacity.

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Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios

I don't know what the cost or the origins of the pen are; but the above two points are quite frankly irrelevant. There's more than just pencil tips floating around in your average manned spacecraft, and unless you're deliberately experimenting with open fire or sparks the tip will not ignite (auto ignition temps being rather higher than what you want to expose your astronauts to). Matches tend to work rather better if you daisy-chain phosporos tip to sulphur to graphite to match stick as you don't end up smearing graphite all over the matchbox.

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I suppose it could be hype by the manufacturor, but I see no reason to think it is really...

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NASA never asked Paul C. Fisher to produce a pen. When the astronauts began to fly, like the Russians, they used pencils, but the leads sometimes broke and became a hazard by floating in the [capsule's] atmosphere where there was no gravity. They could float into an eye or nose or cause a short in an electrical device. In addition, both the lead and the wood of the pencil could burn rapidly in the pure oxygen atmosphere. Paul Fisher realized the astronauts needed a safer and more dependable writing instrument, so in July 1965 he developed the pressurized ball pen, with its ink enclosed in a sealed, pressurized ink cartridge.

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Because of the fire in Apollo 1,in which three Astronauts died, NASA required a writing instrument that would not burn in a 100% oxygen atmosphere.

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edit:

More than you ever wanted to know:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/613/1

Details on the lengths the pen company went to advertise themselves. Does make you wonder if it was anywhere near as useful as they try to imply.

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

Space race... Not much of a race with no manned lift capacity.

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???

Now I want to buy one of those space pens.

A) an atmospheric mix is available that allows the person to breath but is not flammable as there is not enough oxygen flow to feed a flame. So if one is really worried about flames use a different atmospheric mix.

B) US currently has no vehicles that can lift humans. ;( Which is very sad and also why NASA should run itself as an exploration and science organization on par with deep sea divers, Antartic explorers and mineral geophysicists... Take risks and get results.

Not have much time to respond up till now, but a low pressure 100% Oxygen atmosphere mix would indeed tend to explain this partly. Although in reality you wouldn't be able to survive that atmosphere long enough to do meaningful experiments: IIRC 20 mins of it is what you can typically take until its sustained effect becomes too much. Pure oxygen is essentially late 19th/early 20th century deep sea diving tech, unfortunately such mixes are rather toxic. That's why people started adding nitrogen to the mix, to dilute the oxygen.

But yeah at this point pure oxygen atmospheric mixes are a thing of the past.

philosiphy or sypholis?

(what happened to germany? anyway if it is about Philosophy, I think Germany is as, if not more influentual. Then ofcourse you have Philosophy of Mind but no self0-respecting philosopher cares about that ****)