

A 'nerd' shoots for the stars, and NASA comes knocking - awk
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090507.wspace0507/BNStory/National/home

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Chocobean
How patronizing: "He goes to school dances (but not clubs) and has never had a
girlfriend. Asked if his new science stardom might help land one, he replies:
I haven't thought about that."

When will society ask the new starlets and Oscar winners how often they help
out in the community or go to the library/museum/gallery when there isn't a
gala on, or if they have ever written an academic paper which contributes
anything to society?

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endtime
Well...I think globeandmail's audience is probably more general and therefore
more interested in character stuff more than academic papers. If someone gets
interviewed on G4 they get asked what video games they play, whether or not
they are known as gamers, and he's not asked that here either.

Also, it seems Eric needs to work on communication/social skills:

 _“Dude, you won a space station contest!” one girl said. “That's huge!”
“Space colony,” Mr. Yam corrected._

 _By Thursday, the news had sunk in. “It's great,” he said. “Finally some
recognition.”_

Sounds like a smart guy though.

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scott_s
He might have made those comments in a socially appropriate way - by joking.
It sounded to me like the author already decided "antisocial nerd" and fished
for ways to make him fit.

And if he is an antisocial nerd with poor social skills, I don't see any
reason to point it out in the article - it's certainly not going to help him.
Saying he's never had a girlfriend isn't just patronizing, it's embarassing.
Why even mention it?

~~~
endtime
Well, other than being slightly embarassing (if he even cares) to a bunch of
people he will never meet, it could also get the attention of a nice nerdy
girl looking for a 16 year old who designs space colonies.

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physcab
I went to the Kennedy Space Center a while ago to watch the Shuttle launch
with my dad who works for a rocket propulsion company.

I asked him what he thought about the magnetic launch idea...err "launch loop"
as the article says...and surprisingly he said the idea wasn't so far-fetched.

One of the main problems with getting things into space is that you have to
pass through a zone called "Max Q" I guess, where the pressure is maximized
and can literally flatten you. The Shuttle apparently throttles back when
approaching this point.

So propulsion isn't always the limiting factor. There are many different
problems that occur when getting things into space.

One interesting side-note. He also thought scraping the Saturn V rocket was a
huge mistake. Not only could it carry a massive payload, but it was equipped
with numerous abort modes which aren't present on the new launch vehicles. Oh,
and it had 100% mission success, which isn't true for the "new" systems they
developed.

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stuff4ben
If you read the PDF linked from that site, you'll see an amazing amount of
work for such a young man. Seriously, this guy has put a ton of effort into
this, addressing everything from materials, to construction, government, food,
cost breakdown, to even a timeline for how long it will take. It may not be
feasible and I'm sure there is a lot he hasn't thought of, but this man should
be commended for what he's done. I'm impressed!

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gpmedia
Yes it is very impressive, conceptually and technically.

But the finance section is WAY off... Which makes me doubt the rest of the
material in which I have less experience.

Considering that colony/station should be created mainly from resources on the
moon (very smart), the cost for 10,000 construction workers over 27 years
would be according to him:

"10 000 x $34 130 x 27 =$9 215 100 000"

Try negotiating that low salary with someone that is supposed to work on the
moon/in space and not get a pay that is inflation adjusted or never get a pay
raise EVER for that matter...

I would hate to be one of the guys working at that project...

Otherwise good stuff, although the habitat cells should be square shaped to
fully utilize the living space, I mean who needs 6+ meter in room height...

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rsheridan6
You could probably find a lot of people who would work cheap if you didn't
limit your labor pool to Canadians. Working off-planet would arguably be no
worse than doing construction in Dubai in 125 degree heat, and poor people
from India do that for a lot less.

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njharman
"filled with detailed drawings done in Google SketchUp, a program he
downloaded from the Internet."

Is it only me are is that a weird detail to a weird factoid?

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Gibbon
The guy went to my high school! That's cool, but not that surpsising since
they have an excellent gifted enrichment program. That's also why I went
there.

In the 12th grade I remember there was a couple people doing cancer research
at the hospital and another dude doing some kind of physics research at U of
T.

Myself, I was using FEA software to test model aicraft structures and skipping
exams to attend competitions. Fun times.

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zaph0d
There is no language called "Hindu" (page 76) -- ah the ignorance of the
"western" world.

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sipior
I think we can forgive a sixteen-year-old kid for confusing "Hindi" and
"Hindu".

By the way, self-esteem is not a conserved quantity. There's no need to tear
an obviously talented person down to make yourself feel better.

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zandorg
Vaguely, but not quite the same level of glory, but I basically dropped out of
high school when I was 15, but they gave us a quiz to do in the holidays
around that time, with a £25 prize.

Me and a friend won the quiz (there was no Web in those days!).

I became briefly popular when they announced the quiz results in assembly [a
gathering of students and the headteacher], except I was absent (ironically).
I got girls asking me to buy everyone a drink.

Ah, such glory!

I even bought a Spectrum +3 with some of the money.

[postscript: The kid in my class who later went to Cambridge came second in
the quiz, something I feel proud of, even if it's a hollow victory]

