Doc: "As a formal postal carrier, who did treat customer's mail and parcels with a
modicum of respect... good for you. It's carriers like this that unfairly give all carriers
a bad name. In my 30 years in the business, I can safely say that a larger majority
of them treat their job and their customers very seriously and professionally ...and,
just like this guy, we had to put up with the idiots."
AI Overview: Asteroid 16 Psyche is a massive metallic body, believed to be the iron core of
a protoplanet, rich in metals like iron, nickel, platinum, and yes, gold, leading to estimates
of immense value (around $700 quintillion). While headlines suggest it's a "golden asteroid,"
it's not solid gold; rather, it's a mixture of metals and rock (a mesosiderite) with gold
concentrations comparable to high-grade Earth ore, making it a treasure trove of
industrial metals, not just jewelry-grade gold.
Doc: I'd like to point out that it's true that it would make everyone on Earth a billionaire IF the
metals maintained their current value. But, obviously, if someone were to drag the asteroid
back to earth, we would suddenly have an overabundance of 'rare' metals and their value would most
likely drop significantly. Thought I'd bring that up in case you were considering a mining operation.
This was a data disc for a Bryant 4000 Disc Drive built in the early 60's. There's an
IPhone resting against it for scale. The disc had a capacity of around 8 megs and
was used with a series of discs inside a rather large machine as shown on the right.
Here's a wiki excerpt from The History of Hard Drives:
"In 1961, Bryant Computer Products introduced its 4000 series disk drives.
These massive units stood 52 inches (1.3 m) tall, 70 inches (1.8 m) long, and
70 inches (1.8 m) wide, and had up to 26 platters, each 39 inches (0.99 m) in
diameter, rotating at up to 1,200 rpm. Access times were from 50 to 205
milliseconds (ms). The drive's total capacity, depending on the number
of platters installed, was up to 205,377,600 bytes (205 MB)."
Brayden: "I remember this when I was studying up on ships. Ain't that somethin?"
Res: "The size of ships has always amazed me. When I lived in Japan a friend &
I would go down to the USN docks in Yokosuka with lawn chairs & snacks, and
watch them for hours. Vietnam was still happening and the US port would also
get our allies ships coming in for a break from war."