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Thank you.

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Although I appreciate your honesty in providing a general answer to my
question, I found that your grammar and punctuation and even
occasionally spelling were atrocious - pardon me if you are a
foreigner.  Plus I didn't like your frequent interjections of "SEARCH
TERM".  But more importantly, you did not seem to address the second
part of my question, as to whether a finite universe implies that
there is something outside the universe which defines its limits, or
whether there is nothing (and what exactly would "nothing" be - same
as empty space, or something else?).  But you did convey effectively
the reality of the disaccord among scientists about the answer to my
basic question.  So for that part I am satisfied.  Nevertheless I feel
your answer could have been better, at least grammatically correct!

sorry Hedgie, you lost me on the last few paragraphs of your answer .
. . maybe I'm just having a bad brain day, I don't know. . . .

I found some great ideas in Philip Kaplan's book 'F'd Companies' . . .
and it seems to be working okay. Thanks, anyway!

I appreciate your help as well as the other answerer's comments.  The
dialogue was a valuable one.

That and the comments fully answer my question

Thank you so much.  Nice job!

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I'm still curious whether some other factor than gamma would meet the
required criteria.

Outstanding answer... contains the facts, what they mean, and a touch
of humor.  This answerer understands not only his/her material but can
also well read the "gist" of a question (and answer it).

thanks hedgie.
Wisely, something like the mobile phone equivalent of a "police-band
scanner"  referenced in the following link is *not* sold to the
general public yet(in the USA at least).

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=450008


lynnm, thanks for your comment.  While the tracking capability is
potentially advantageous for locating family members, who are aware of
the capability and want to be found and aren't located in a GPS
dead-spot, there are of course many potential downsides that
compromise personal security or personal privacy.
As in a 21st century F*tal Attr*ction.  Or a merging of RFID and
GPS-aware mobile phones.

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In the end, it looks like we're going a different route with the sign,
but none the less, hedgie's answer was timely, thorough, and very
helpful. Top notch!

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Thanks for all the information.  It's quite interesting. 
Unfortunately, after reading through the links, I've come to the
opposite conclusion as you: No, this is not possible for an extremely
dedicated hobbyist.

Most links talk pure hypothetics, which is useful to help me
understand how such a device would work.  Then this link:
http://deed.megan.ryerson.ca/~fil/I/Papers/iaf2004.pdf
talks a bit about the current technological limits, including "The
launch velocity of a conventional powder gun is limited to 3 - 4
km/s;"  It doesn't really explain why, but at least we can see that an
"explosive" cannon type device isn't really going to work.  Then
looking at "Table 1: Present Launcher Technology Performance" we can
see the limits of some selected projects (up to year 2003).  None are
capable of reaching escape velocity for something on the order of tens
of grams. (The HARP project that andy2205-ga mentioned in the comments
is listed in that table as well.)

I've read through the wiki link and followed links from there as well,
and must admit I still don't fully understand how a mass driver
differs from a rail gun ... so I still have reading to do :)  But some
links led to reports of current research and it looks like even with
government backing through grants, such launches are not yet possible.

So I'll have to say No to the crazed hobbist. (Feel free to correct me
if I'm missing something important here.)

I gave you a 5 star rating because the info was quite interesting, and
you did _great_ in taking liberties to explore new ideas (I never
considered electromagnetic propulsion schemes when thinking about this
previously).  Thanks :)

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A very well constructed and illustrated answer pitched at exactly the
right level of granularity. I will definitely be using this service
again - perhaps for something more useful

Factually incorrect.  California does not give a credit based on foreign tax paid.

I am very pleased that I used this service.

Thanks

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AWSOME ANSWER. My friends were all joking that i had thrown this money
away on information that any googler could find, however THIS answer
definatly shows a acute interest in my unqiue delima and detailed
attention given to the research and conclusion is apparent.  I really
thought this whole thing was going to end badly... Beforehand, I've
read some of your answers to others and was secretly hopeing
"hedgie-ga" would be the one to research my question.  Good Work!  I
now feel that i have enough knowledge to make some informed decisions
regarding our future.  Thanks again

Ryan

Many thanks for the useful information

Thank you. That was really outstanding.

thank you very much for ALL THAT INFO!

cheerios!
ts

Very indepth

very clear answer.

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Great answer, reply very quickly, did not repeat what everyone else
did. over all great job. Satisfied with the annswer

Interesting style of answering... a lot of different kinds of answers.

Very fascinating stuff. I wasn't aware that magnets have a "circuit
design" acting similarly to electric circuits. The links were
interesting. Thanks!

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