The universe according to MMM

[kphoger]

What kind of interest rates is Alan Bank charging these days for laundering money?

A solid 4%, because they're not completely inept and weird at everything.

However, failure to pay on time means you gain one goat, whereas paying too soon also nets one goat.

[J N Winkler]

Mmmmm!  The smell of Persil on freshly washed currency.

[hotdogPi]

And just a clarification about my cargo planes to carry traffic on I-90 over Lake Michigan and Ontario Canada:

These would be similar in shape to those flat shaped triangular planes on the movie "Independence Day" that launched the nuke at the aliens ship. They would be flat and wider, and would hold about 10 cars each, and would carry traffic over these 2 gaps at around 250-300 mph. I ruled out the jet powered water ferries. While this would still leave I-80 as the much straighter and better interstate, it would lessen my grief with I-90 if the gap was completed.

You mean the B-2 stealth bomber, the most expensive plane in history?

Similar shape, but not the same technology. Could carry up to 10 cars at low altitude a 200-300 mph over both Ontario and Lack Michigan so we wouldn't have to trade land or anything. These planes could circle back and forth carrying traffic in both directions after it drops one set of cars off it carries the ones waiting on that side back across the other direction..etc.

Is this what the US military has been shooting down recently?

Lack Michigan

I think you mean Lack Alaska.

[Max Rockatansky]

I ran into the Lack Noss Monster the other day.  I said "damn it Monster, what do you want?."   He said back to me "I need about three thirty seven."

[kphoger]

My I-90 balloon signs would be stationary, at an altitude of about 800 feet, and you could see the shield from half a mile away so there's no way the US Government would confuse them for enemy spy tech or UFOs.

What if a foreign state began using spy craft disguised with I-90 shields?

[kphoger]

Wouldn't the watermarks and holograms detract from the legibility of a route shield?

[Scott5114]

My I-90 balloon signs would be stationary, at an altitude of about 800 feet, and you could see the shield from half a mile away so there's no way the US Government would confuse them for enemy spy tech or UFOs.

What if a foreign state began using spy craft disguised with I-90 shields?

Well, you'd just look at the state name right above the route number. Duh.

Neutered shields would be shot down with prejudice. Not because of anything having to do with who launched them, just because they're neutered.

[GaryV]

My I-90 balloon signs would be stationary, at an altitude of about 800 feet, and you could see the shield from half a mile away so there's no way the US Government would confuse them for enemy spy tech or UFOs.

What if a foreign state began using spy craft disguised with I-90 shields?

We would detect them moving in, the stationary shields are just supposed to stay in their locations to make the route. That is though, a reason why Interstate highway shields should be designed with similar features of money, with watermarks, holograms, microprinting..etc, so it would be harder to build bootleg interstate signs/balloons.

How are you going to keep the balloons stationary over Lake Michigan?

[US 89]

My I-90 balloon signs would be stationary, at an altitude of about 800 feet, and you could see the shield from half a mile away so there's no way the US Government would confuse them for enemy spy tech or UFOs.

What if a foreign state began using spy craft disguised with I-90 shields?

We would detect them moving in, the stationary shields are just supposed to stay in their locations to make the route. That is though, a reason why Interstate highway shields should be designed with similar features of money, with watermarks, holograms, microprinting..etc, so it would be harder to build bootleg interstate signs/balloons.

How are you going to keep the balloons stationary over Lake Michigan?

Simply shoot them down when they drift away and then reattach another balloon, of course.

[Max Rockatansky]

My I-90 balloon signs would be stationary, at an altitude of about 800 feet, and you could see the shield from half a mile away so there's no way the US Government would confuse them for enemy spy tech or UFOs.

What if a foreign state began using spy craft disguised with I-90 shields?

We would detect them moving in, the stationary shields are just supposed to stay in their locations to make the route. That is though, a reason why Interstate highway shields should be designed with similar features of money, with watermarks, holograms, microprinting..etc, so it would be harder to build bootleg interstate signs/balloons.

How are you going to keep the balloons stationary over Lake Michigan?

Simply shoot them down when they drift away and then reattach another balloon, of course.

An endless supply of work orders for the balloon industry, I see this as a total win.

[kalvado]

My I-90 balloon signs would be stationary, at an altitude of about 800 feet, and you could see the shield from half a mile away so there's no way the US Government would confuse them for enemy spy tech or UFOs.

What if a foreign state began using spy craft disguised with I-90 shields?

Well, you'd just look at the state name right above the route number. Duh.

Neutered shields would be shot down with prejudice. Not because of anything having to do with who launched them, just because they're neutered.

FHWA spokesperson said that the agency is not going to investigate the use of unapproved font on highway signs.
"this is up to local agencies, we have guidelines only"

[kalvado]

My I-90 balloon signs would be stationary, at an altitude of about 800 feet, and you could see the shield from half a mile away so there's no way the US Government would confuse them for enemy spy tech or UFOs.

What if a foreign state began using spy craft disguised with I-90 shields?

We would detect them moving in, the stationary shields are just supposed to stay in their locations to make the route. That is though, a reason why Interstate highway shields should be designed with similar features of money, with watermarks, holograms, microprinting..etc, so it would be harder to build bootleg interstate signs/balloons.

How are you going to keep the balloons stationary over Lake Michigan?

They would be somewhat anchored in the water. The balloon part would hold it up in the air, but a cable would extend into the ocean floor, preventing it from swaying too far in any direction.

Ocean floor on the other side of the earth?

[GaryV]

they could still drift around a few dozen feet but that's it

A cable more than a quarter mile long would only drift a few dozen feet? (You said they'd be 800 feet above the surface, and the lake is up to 900 feet deep.)

BTW, how big would these balloons be? They'd have to have a lot of gas to hold up that cable.

[Max Rockatansky]

And if the cables come crashing to the ground accidentally? 

[kalvado]

They wouldn't. The laws of physics would keep them in the air indefinitely. They would be made out of carbon nanotubes, which can withstand up to 120 Gigapascals of pressure. The force of the earth's rotation exerts about 60-100 Gigapascals, so that is comfortably above the breaking point. (Citation: "Physics of the Impossible")

So no more GPS?

[kkt]

I think you should come up with a budget estimate and submit it to your member of Congress.

[kkt]

Who? George Santos? I thought I was him according to people on here?

I didn't notice anyone calling you George Santos, though I don't read all of every thread by any means.  I guess you'd be the best judge of that.

[Scott5114]

BTW, how big would these balloons be? They'd have to have a lot of gas to hold up that cable.

Good thing we have a never ending supply of hot air here in this thread...

[kalvado]

What? These are just cables to hold up my I-90 signs. What does GPS have to do with it? I know some of this sounds extreme, but you gotta admit it does make a little more sense than I-90 running along I-80.

You are giving numbers for anorbital cabling structure....

[kalvado]

No, the orbital suspension method is just to hold the cables up without any power. The signs are simply attached to them at whatever altitude the car carrying shuttle planes would operate at. The orbital suspension is simply the centripetal force of the earth rotating, counteracting gravity. A cable suspended in such a way would appear to be magically floating vertically into thr sky from your point of view. The whole point of the cables is to suspend the signage in the air, not for the transportations itself.

Yep. That means cables would interfere with satellites, and all 9f them would have to be removed from the orbit. Including GPS group.

[Max Rockatansky]

Imagine being the schmuck that has a orbital tether BGS fall on them?

[dlsterner]

Imagine being the schmuck that has a orbital tether BGS fall on them?

Would that person be a schmuck, or would they be a schlemiel, or a schlimazel?

I think more likely a schlimazel.

[kalvado]

Imagine being the schmuck that has a orbital tether BGS fall on them?

Imagine being a city....
Those energies quickly go into the range better described by kilotons....

[kalvado]

The only way for these sign suspension cables to come crashing down is if Earth stopped rotating.

Says the guy who never had his car towed

[triplemultiplex]

This is funny and all, but why the hell would the sky route need signs at all?  The individual vehicle owners aren't driving this plane carrying their car, so what do they care if there are I-90 shields visible?  Planes fly everywhere all the time with no 'signs'.

Did you become fixated on Back to the Future part 2 when Doc and Marty drop in on 2015 and there's marked roadways in the sky above Hill Valley, complete with signed exits?