Yup. Once the organic stuff has decomposed, you can recycle a lot of plastic and metal out of that heap.
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Walter,
Yes, but asteroids have a much greater supply of materials, and the waste material has a function that can get militaries to pay for the basic extraction–kinetic energy weapons. When you want all of the abombs ‘boom’ and none of that nasty radioactive fallout. The cloud of debris from KE weapons could also serve to reduce global temperatures
Interesting concepts in theory, but ranging from rather problematic to nasty in practice. Also, I have to ask you to cite some sources and numbers as to feasibility. (initial cost vs. ROI and timeline to implement)
And what target on Earth would you suggest?
JAG “Supervillain Convention 2015 - Be There!” MAN
Yes, but asteroids represent a nearly inexhaustable supply of resources.
And by the time it becomes practical, the entire earth could be the target of our self made ‘aliens’.
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Walter,
Yes, but asteroids represent a nearly inexhaustable supply of resources.
And there is no damned reason we can’t do both with a synergistic crossover advantage. But I see the landfills as the low hanging fruit we need for the short game. Extraterrestrial mining is playing the long game though I am not saying we shouldn’t pursue it. I was just hoping you had some numbers I could look at.
Or at least name a likely first asteroid and it’s composition.
And by the time it becomes practical, the entire earth could be the target of our self made ‘aliens’.
Houston is first, just because I hate the zoning, humidity and traffic.
Plus I want to see the cloud from Dallas.
JAG “Better Be Warp Drive In My Lifetime” MAN
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I think the numbers are like what we have been hearing about pratical fusion energy for the last 60 years–its only 20 years away…
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Walter,
I think the numbers are like what we have been hearing about pratical fusion energy for the last 60 years–its only 20 years away…
And after the machines take over in a few years ala The Terminator, they will probably get tired of us dicking around in 2.2 nanoseconds and step up the timeline for both fusion and interstellar travel.
So 20 years… yeah…
JAG “Rosie Jetson - the Iron Dictator” MAN
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In a way, we already are. Household recycling not conspicuously done by consumers and businesses curbside is increasingly being done on the backend at the landfill. Since households are kind of terrible at putting the right things in the bin and the separation tech is increasingly automated, pulling from the general waste stream seems to be the direction of the future. Cities can potentially recover more valuables and it opens up capturing new sources of value sooner than conventional curbside recycling.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see curbside bins disappear within another decade.
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And if there was no manual, there were trusty Sams Photofacts. Dang, I used to love those…
Well, vinyl records are making a bit of a comeback.
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I’m truly surprised at the response to this article - I put it up as I thought it would be of interest and clearly it is. Of course the other demon out there eluded to in the article in DMCA.
@JAGMAN & @wandrson
You 2 quit screwing around back there!
This topic was about repairing our own stuff, not mining asteroids!
You wanna get flagged?!?
@Photomancer Thank you for turning this topic right around! It nearly went off the rails…
Re: DMCA
TLAs are where it’s at, for my $1. FLAs can go back to whatever hell decided they NEEDED 33%more characters than TLAs to serve essentially the same function: confuse the outliers.
Demons. Indeed.
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Andrew,
This topic was about repairing our own stuff, not mining asteroids!
You switched tracks with your talk of landfills - and I CAN edit the topic title to accommodate. Watch…
You wanna get flagged?!?
There are two of us, so you want to get your skeptical M&M ass chased around Makerspace at Open House? We will get hungry sometime… 
JAG “Get Eaten” MAN
Edit: I EDITED the hell out of this topic thread subject - go me
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@JAG Changing the title is a neat trick, … ;_0 
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Can someone stay on target and talk about repairing our landfills? We have a - Look a shiny squirrel over there!
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@JAGMAN Changing the title is a neat trick,
Yes David - it involves a clever technique called “typing”…
My new policy of dealing with flags for off-topic is to expand the topic subject.
Easy AND nefarious. 
JAG “If Only You Knew The Power of The Snark Side” MAN
EDIT: P.S. Now investigating the formation of a new Sarcastic Smartass Interest Group
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Don’t forget “Trust Level 3” exploitation of said technique…
PS I thought this whole thing was the Sarcastic Smartass Interest Group Experiment…
I’m just gonna leave this right here…
Richard,
And here is a somewhat recent example of how it is done using plants / bio-nanotechnology:
JAG “There’s Gold In Them Thar Plants!” MAN
Andrew,
Most of the posters on this thread have TL3 (it was changed back I notice) and David is probably close to acquiring that level in the next few weeks and then he too can join the Snark Side.
PS I thought this whole thing was the Sarcastic Smartass Interest Group Experiment…
Experiment, yes. An interest group is a another level beyond. (but not much)
JAG “Land Snark” MAN
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I’ve heard of indicator plants used for prospecting, and various stupid plant tricks (like, getting plants to create circuit board traces), but I don’t recall hearing about trying to get plants to create nanoparticles of gold.
BACK ON TOPIC
…X…