We have a multiparty system, but highly polarised society (reminiscent of your cultural war in the US) which results in two dominant parties, although we have all the infrastructure needed for pluralist democracy.
The biggest issue I see is the fact that gravitational time dilation is considerable on the surface of the Miller's planet, but not so much in the relatively close proximity of the planet, where the mothership is. I just don't get that part.
The explanation Kip Thorne offers in his book is that the lander ends up slingshotting around two things, like black holes and neutron stars, that happen to be in the right places to drop the lander into the gravity well and then accelerate it back into a stable orbit close to the planet. Of course, that kind of maneuver twice, on both the descent into Gargantua's gravity well and the return trip, is totally implausible... the idea that there are so many high gravitation objects orbiting Gargantua near the planet's orbit that you can pull it off on no particular schedule... but it might not be physically impossible.
Wouldn't that be yet another reason to avoid that planet like the plague? Even if they set up a colony there, at any time the planet could run into an orbiting black hole or neutron star, or get slingshotted by one of them into an unfavorable orbit or into Gargantua itself.
I figured the mothership was still orbiting the black hole, in a much wider orbit. They could rendezvous by matching orbits using pretty standard manoeuvres, it would just take more time than if it was moving in a similar orbit as the planet itself.
Excellent concept... but I could not use it. It says "To view 46 words of content, send exactly 0.00015612 BTC ($0.10) to
12smAWhdY9aMFyEenX6NLVZDend5WJgfVc". I paid with this transaction: https://blockchain.info/tx/047a379b7530f98876818540356b66964... And nothing happened, not even after 2 confirmations.
Yes, excellent concept, but also did not work for me. Also attempt to refresh the page asks for another payment. In this moment of weakness you wish there was a "refund" button on BitCoin :)
I payed it, it confirmed practically instantly, said "loading content...", and never got past that step. When I refreshed, a new paywall was in place asking for another payment.
That would be true if carbon dioxide was the only greenhouse gas. But it isn't.
Burning biomass could be sustainable if we make sure that new biomass is grown at the same rate as it is burned. I have yet to see a document assuring me that is the case.
In any case burning biofuel is not greenhouse gas neutral. And hence not green.
