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Oh come on, all that stuff is just TV. It's not reality. Or is it?

I'd just like to step in and make a few corrections and clarifications:

"Obviously a project named after the inventors."
Judge for yourselves, The original AJC posting had a picture of us, as did the actual article. The article also included a nice illustration of the MADMEN.

"But if you ask me, the whole thing sounds like something cooked up by Hubert J. Farnsworth."
Since I designed the MADMEN nodes, does that mean I know officially qualify as a mad scientist?

"NASA really has beaten Congress in the stupid name department."
NASA did not come up with the acronym, nor did they have anything at all to do with this project. The acronym was concocted by AC (the guy on the left in the pic). I'm working on the design for the landers, but managed to write an entire paper on the system without using the acronym. We (SpaceWorks Engineering, Inc.) are not partners with NIAC. They are a group which sponsors far out research like this. We are a completely independant company from them or NASA.

NASA has done some work in asteroid detection, and has similar groups which have done some work on asteroid deflection (with giant lasers I believe) but no dedicated organization for this sort of stuff.

"In short they are paying 75k for a group of people to sit around a brainstorm ideas. Neat concept, call me when we are actually past the idea part of it."
Hopefully we'll win a NIAC phase II for this and actually build something and get more in depth with the concept.

"If some of them breaks, there's a lot more to carry on."
That's pretty much the whole point of the swarm.

"How much will these things weigh? With a nuke generator, and drilling and launching equipment to handle a pound of rock at a time over and over, say 1000 pounds max."
More like 1300 kg, but the in space transfer stage weight a lot more than that

"Asteroids ROTATE, in wildly different ways and have a miniscule amount of local gravity. "
The MADMEN would definitely have to be located around the asteroid and would obviously only fire when on one side.

And landing on an asteroid is not really that hard, its already been done by a spacecraft not even intended to land on one.

I think this guy is talking through a hole in his head - he doesn't follow the Linux or Spam industries at all. He is not competent to make a statement.

Here are some links to his other stories....

Here

They are mainly about Globalisation, and misconceptions about it... sort of funny really given his own mistaken view of who might have carried out the MyDoom attacks and why.

However the same guy won an award for writing about 911...

Reporting on 911

But Evans is not an expert on the motivation of Linux programmers. I'm no conspiracy freak - and don't quite buy the idea that SCO brought it on themselves. However - it is more likely the work of spammers wishing to deflect attention from themselves. The fact that Mr Evans doesn't quite understand the link between spam, worms and virii means that his comments should be ignorred.

The only trouble is that similarly ignorant people will not. I think the focus of our concern should be the wider misunderstanding in the media.

We so often make it difficult for the media to understand the issues. The media needs to be educated enough to be able to avoid such misinformation in the future.

Not an easy task...

A new email virus called MyDoom is spreading rapidly across the Internet through UNIX mail servers, bringing with it a dangerous attachment that, when opened, can give attackers access to users' computers through an electronic backdoor.

Apparently in their zeal to deflect criticism, they are ignoring, or don't read /. where a more plausible explanation as to the origin of the virus has been posted, and as to the motives behind it.

Too bad (for the site) their own readers don't fall for it

The above links are relevent to the BBC post as well.

Wrath of the geeks

If anyones anger has no measure, it is the wrath of internet zealots who believe that code should be free to all (open source).
So, it seems likely that the perpetrators of the MyDoom virus and its variants are internet vandals with a specific grudge.
SCO is the big, bad company that violates one of their sacred principles, as they would see it.
There's no proof, of course, but it must be one of the theories at the top of any investigator's list.

Interesting to see the BBC publishing this "reporting" on the heels of this

They argued that Mr Dyke, the BBC's editor-in-chief, was blameless for the "defective" system of checks which failed to expose the mistakes made by reporter Andrew Gilligan.

Mr Dyke, they argued, had a long list of extra responsibilities, from " motivating staff " to handling budgets and could not have been expected to check Mr Gilligan's story which alleged that the Government inserted bogus material into the Iraq dossier.

Although editors traditionally accepted responsibility for their journalists' shortcomings, that did not mean Mr Dyke "could or should" have had any clue about the inaccuracies in the story.

The BBC submission said its governors did not have "direct management responsibility" although they did take "ultimate responsibility for the BBC in everything it does".

And it argued, astonishingly, that the governors were never asked to treat the deluge of demands for an apology made by Alastair Campbell or the Government as "a formal complaint".

Meanwhile, in a separate legal submission, Gilligan attempted to claim that reporters should be allowed "a margin of error" to make mistakes.

And more:

On the BBC

BBC editorial system was 'defective'

BBC management failed to appreciate that Gilligan's notes did not support the most serious of his allegations

The BBC governors should have recognised the desire to protect its independence was not incompatible with investigating Mr Campbell's complaints, no matter what their tone

The BBC governors should have investigated further the differences between Gilligan's notes and his report, and that should have led them to question w

The biggest tip off here is that it's all based in Florida, home of Gov. Jeb Bush. When TIA failed, MATRIX was created via state law enforcement and Seisint in Florida thanks to two brothers and boat load of oil money. It's now being implemented in a scary fashion on a national level, but maybe some states have better informed campaign managers for their elected leaders. :) Matrix originally involved 14 states; all but six have dropped out. Utah pulled out this week."

A new email virus called MyDoom is spreading rapidly across the Internet through UNIX mail servers, bringing with it a dangerous attachment that, when opened, can give attackers access to users' computers through an electronic backdoor.

These guys didn't care about the deficit when in one year they gave the Pentagon $74 billion increase, $40 billion ($400 billion/10 years) to create a Medicare senior drug plan, or $12 billion in farm subsidies. Surely we can scrape together $1 billion this year to do some actual science... Incidentally, I happen to be a trickle-down believer, and any money we put towards NASA will only go to help provide jobs for scientists and engineers, something we really need to do to drive off what's left of the Dot-Bomb, and help rekindle the USA's technology drive.

With all these electronics, how many false positives like this are we going to have to go through? Really, it's something to think about with all of these flights being cancelled.

CB

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/obits/0703/ 22barbe.html

The Unreal guys probably got proactive about getting this story out there.

Yeah, I used to get interviewed by the AJC on technology issues. Seriously, I could have told them Linux is more popular than Windows and they probably would have published it.

Most reporters have a few pals in several industries. For instance, a doctor they call on medical issues, an IT guy for tech stuff, etc.

Reporters do one thing: Report :-)

Microsoft Mission:
Enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.

OTG Mission:
Proactively deliver IT infrastructure and applications that exceed defined expectations of our clients, customers, and partners-making it easy to work anywhere at any time.

Whenever I'm feeling constipated, I read this paper on .NET.. Whenever I'm running low on toilet paper, the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation...
Yeah I'm out of the academia loop and don't read too much published works aside from whatever gets noticed here...
-B

People are leaving the United States out of disgust and fear.

According to who? Show me some proof that a significant number of people are leaving the US, and that those people are leaving out of "disgust and fear", and that this number is higher now than in the past. I call bullcrap.

Comparisons are being made to pre-war Germany.

Who is making these comparisons? If you believe that, it would benefit you to open up some WWII history books.

The draft commission is coming back online.

No its not.

Suddenly religion is leaking into the government

Bullcrap. The 9th Circuit just ruled this year that the words "under God" in the pledge were unconstitutional. They just remove a 10 Commandments monument from a courthouse in Alabama. Most people in this country, including members of the government and our current President, have always been and will always be religious. There is nothing wrong with that.

like blood out of a bullet-riddled Iraqi

I find it interesting that you are more negative about the US presence in Iraq than the Iraqi's themselves are.

and even more horrifically, most people seem to think that's okay.

Whats not okay? That our current President doesn't hide the fact that he believes in God? Would you like it better if we outlawed all public expressions of faith? Yeah- that sounds great.

And despite vast technological superiority over all enemy nations, the U.S. continues to ramp up weapons development.

And I wouldn't have it any other way. If we relax, it won't take long before somebody gains an advantage.

Something is deeply wrong in the U.S.

Yes. Right now we have 10 democrat presidential candidates that are so blinded by hatred and partisanship that the are hoping our economy gets worse and we fail in Iraq. Why? Because then they have a better chance at winning an election. They have set themselves up so they will succeed only when America fails. We also have a media that, for whatever reason, seems unwilling to report our successes in Iraq. Do you think that is helping?

Which one of those statments are you claiming was false?

Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.

Even without the qualifier this statement is true. David Kay found plenty of evidence to back it up.

The regime has a history of reckless aggression in the Middle East. It has a deep hatred of America and our friends. And it has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including operatives of al Qaeda.

You probably don't disagree with the first sentence, but the second one is true too.

The danger is clear: using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other.

So, you don't think it would be dangerous if terrorists were to use WMDs against the US or another country?

That's really interesting, because there has been evidence found that Al Qeada was training in Iraq and getting WMDs from Saddam. There also have been plenty of evidence found that Iraq still had active WMD programs.

Does that mean Fox viewers are actually the best informed?

Yeah, man, it's a complete debacle.

Well, not too light, exactly, just made of the wrong materials. Some states (Tennessee) now even allow motorcycles to run red lights if the sensor doesn't trigger. See this article.

This is the same guy who's been calling for an end to government funding of PBS. He mistated several facts and twisted a few issues and came to the conclusion that PBS is a waste of time and money because they broadcast Barney. Now we ALL hate Barney, but Daniel Lyons is basically an ignorant prick and should be furiously ignored, in the hopes that he'll just go away.

The Atlanta Journal-constitution also has a story about this. The story reports that it's a 7210. I guess owners of the 7210 beware :)

Are you sure it's not been mentioned anywhere?

I think it has...

Mark

(I don't care if I've been trolled, that was silly fun :)

Ugh, I'm tired of seeing the Yankees win all the time. At least Oakland has a chance against them, assuming they can keep their pitching staff healthy. Besides, with the Giants gone they're the only California team left.

If it's the Marlins and the Yankees, I'm afraid the Series will go 5 games - if the Marlins are lucky.

AP Wire Report - Attorney General Darl McBride will embark on a multicity tour this month to talk about the war on I.P. theft and the benefits of the SCO Copyright Act, officials said Monday.

McBride plans to kick off the tour Oct. 7 in Toronto and visit more than a dozen cities. The exact itinerary was still being completed and has now been released.

The SCO Copyright Act, passed a few weeks after the I.P. infringements of IBM, strengthened the Company's surveillance powers, beefed up anti-infringement laws and made it easier to go after financial backers of Open Source Software.

Critics say the law threatens civil liberties and improperly allows the Company to snoop into people's lives.

This version has some comments by Bruce Schneier supporting Greer. One has to wonder if Microsoft did not threaten a BSA audit or some such thing. Honestly, the probelm with Microsoft is that too many people use their products and actually seem to think there is a legitemate purpose for them beyond using the cds as coasters. These people refuse to allow even the slightest criticism of Microsoft and look at it as wild-eyed hatred.

But there are legitemate reasons to oppose what Microsoft is doing and their products, quite frankly, are a major cause of the problems we have today in the technology industry. The report in question does not in fact go far enough at all.

You know, up until recently it was against the law to have anal sex of any kind in Texas. Does that mean that everyone who did that should have been punished for it?

More to the point, is file-sharing theft? Since the evidence shows a strong correlation between file-sharing and CD sales, I would suggest that file-sharing is marketing, not theft.

And I'm not the only musician who thinks that way... See story from yesterday's Slashdot.

Direct hard money contributions to the campaigns haven't been nearly as much of a factor as the soft money, which amounted to half a billion dollars in the 1999-2000 election cycle.

I agree with a recent editorial in The Atlanta Journal Constitution that hopes the SCOTUS upholds the McCain-Feingold closing of soft money loopholes.

We could just make light bulbs better so that they last longer. Some of the light bulbs that Edison made still work today after 100 years, but they aren't made like the bulbs today. If we just created them like this we wouldn't need LEDs.

Example 1
Example 2

More evidence

Tell that to Cameron Diaz.

Read the story at the Atlanta Journal Constitiution or the NY Times.

I don't find that it is all that dificult to find "accuracy on the Internet." Go to Google, run a few searches in tabs(tnx, safari) check out competing claims, and make your best judgement. Tell me, how do you judge accuracy in books. I generally go by the publisher, author, writing style, wealth of footnotes and a nice bibliography. The internet is not much different.

Court Upholds Secret Detentions

US court upholds draconian law allowing secret arrests

Executions possible at Guantanamo

Big Brother - Make That Uncle Sam

Ashcroft seeks broader powers

Now shut the fuck up about your imaginary "rights". May you live in interesting times, american bastards.

This is somewhat offtopic but I wanted to give you guys a different perspective on shuttle related issues.

I live in Nacogdoches (Nak-ah-doh-chez), Texas, the place where most of the shuttle debris fell. Once upon a time, NASA news hardly even made the paper. All that has changed. Everytime a NASA scientist sneezes, the local paper mentions it.

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to hear the local sherrif Thomas Kerss talk about the disaster plan he and other local officials dynamically implemented to handle the shuttle disaster and the ongoing recovery effort. There is no template for a disaster like this in any city office our county office in the nation, so local officials had to act fast to keep local residents safe, to manage the recovery effort, and to manage the press surrounding the event. They did such a great job that there is now a template for disasters like the Columbia disaster and its called the "Nacogdoches Plan".

The recovery effort that Sherriff Kerss and others implemented was especially lauded, as the Sherriff quickly received assistance from the Stephen F. Austin State University Geosciences lab and the SFA Forestry department (the finest in the nation). By using the maps provided by the geosciences lab, they divided the area where the shuttle fell into blocks of a few acres in size. They immediately dispatched deputies armed with GPS locators to locations where citizens were reporting fallen debris. The deputies would identify the debris, call in their location to central command, and central command would mark the detailed maps with the locations of debris and descriptions of what was there. For debris locations in public places and for important items, national guardsmen or law enforcement officials were dispatched to guard those places.

The recovery is ongoing and like some have said, they will be finding things for at least another decade. In fact, its rumored that they've found a mini-cassette that might provide insight into Columbia's last moments.

Seeing that the shuttle will fly again soon is fantastic news and is what everyone in this area has been hoping for. They talked about changing the landing flight path so that they won't go over populous locations but I'm not sure if that's been decided yet. I figured they start landing it in California as rule like it used to be. If not, I can guarantee that the majority of East Texans will be trying to catch a glimpse of the shuttle when it flies overhead on its way to Cape Canaveral.

I don't want to shop in a store where, for all intents and purposes, their selection and display of merchandise is dictated by intolerant Southern bible-thumping asswads.

I don't want to shop in a store where, for all intents and purposes, their selection and display of merchandise is dictated by intolerant Southern bible-thumping asswads.

Yep particularly relevant due to the recent legislation to restrict pagan ritual rights... wait, there isn't any.

How about Bob Barr's 1999 attempt to forbid Wiccan soliders from practising on bases and ships?

References:

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution archives
• The Witches' Voice archives of the Barr incident.

Thank gods it was defeated, but Bush has stated that he agrees with Barr's position.

fearbush.com