Carbon fiber is a pretty weird choice for a reusable rocket. Unlike aluminum, it has basically zero tolerance to heat since the fibers are embedded in a matrix made of a polymer glue compound. That's why they call it fiber reinforced plastic.
SpaceX already uses carbon fiber on their rockets in the interstage and payload shroud. They do provide some insulation: they're covered in cork. But most of the rocket body encounters extra low temperatures more than high temperatures.
Can you even imagine the sorts of things Nixon could have gotten away with if he has simple been able to say in his era "I-It was an attempt by the Russians to defame me!"?
And there was a massive groundswell of support within the government to keep 'their team' from losing. Keep in mind the only reason Nixon is such a big deal is because Republicans were equally outraged, at least morally, at what Nixon did. I don't think that would happen today if Obama did something worse and I have my doubts about Republicans too.
There has been a very strong empirical correlation between free trade deals and subsequent negative economic fallout for average US citizens. In addition to what the others have said, this is another such free trade deal, but even larger than any other that has come before it.
Could you share a link(s) to the study that establishes a strong negative correlation between trade deals and the average American? I think the closest thing to a concensus among economists is that free trade produces some winners and losers, but on the whole, it improves overall welfare.
It's pretty bizarre how 4chan of all places turned out to be the cultural epicenter of this generation. All these meme pages are just reposting content from there.
Not sure why you were downvoted. Something Awful, while incredibly influential early on, didn't really grow because of the paid nature of the forums. 4chan exploded because of the anonymous nature of the memes. They were funny, and they weren't tied to the creator to boost his or her internet points. They are pure ideas coming from the level playing field that is Anonymous. Awful and great stuff arose out of it when its biggest competitor was flash-based stuff from ebaumsworld, funnyjunk, black sheep, and newgrounds.
Now I'd say Reddit is a huge influencer but it is fragmented (as opposed to a single /b/) and still tied to internet points. And missing the pink babies from Something Awful.
Unfortunately, the ephemeral nature does have its downsides. It guarantees that most of the posts will be short, stupid reposts of old content. However, you can't have true anonymity without the limited lifetime of posts. Also, it accelerates natural selection. Garbage memes won't make it to the next thread.
4chan, or more specifically, /b/, moves fast and several mechanisms (like the 150-image limit per thread) are in place to keep it that way. The limited lifetime and ephemerality of content encourages people to save things they find good, to be reposted later and frequently for others to see.
Therefore the /b/ experience, although often trashy at best, vulgar and hateful at worst, does allow good content to organically bubble to the top, and not just by absent-mindedly clicking the 'reblog'/'retweet'/'share' button, but by individuals uploading the same saved image or composing a derivative work. It's the internet equivalent of one-off barroom quips, of graffiti in bathroom stalls, of spray paint tags on urban blight. It's us humans at some of our best, and some of our worst.
> The limited lifetime and ephemerality of content
While I love[1] the idea of having a place for ephemeral anonymous communicationj, that may have been only a local feature. As Jason Scott said[2], "You're like, 'No one notices if I post on 4chan.' [...] I have ten million archived threads of 4chan, for five years." I'm sure that number has grown in the years since he said that. 4chan only seems ephemeral.
[1] I totally agree about /b/ (and the rest of 4chan) being raw unfiltered humanity; it's a lot of junk, a few examples of humanity at its worst, and a handful of creative gems. A majority, I think, is simply people trying to express themselves in new ways. We need a place for that kind of free experimentation.
Archives of individual 4chan boards are also growing more in demand. The more niche boards seem to like being able to search through past discussions. It's extremely useful for finding new artists via /mu/, for example.
And of course, by the time it's on Facebook and "regular teens" use it, it's as far removed from 4chan as HN is. Post one of these memes there and you'll get flamed for being a "normalfag".
