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You remember correctly.

"A Soyuz capsule will always be docked at the ISS, capable of carrying two people in a medical emergency, or three people in other emergencies. A crew will take a fresh Soyuz capsule to the station every six months."
http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-station11.h tm

Here is a snippet about sleep and addiction.
Sleep and addiction

The most important long-term problem is the effect that caffeine has on sleep.The half-life of caffeine in your body is about 6 hours. That means that if you consume a big cup of coffee with 200 mg of caffeine in it at 3:00 PM, by 9:00 PM about 100 mg of that caffeine is still in your system. You may be able to fall asleep, but your body probably will miss out on the benefits of deep sleep. That deficit adds up fast. The next day you feel worse, so you need caffeine as soon as you get out of bed. The cycle continues day after day. This is why 90% of Americans consume caffeine every day. Once you get in the cycle, you have to keep taking the drug. Even worse, if you try to stop taking caffeine, you get very tired and depressed and you get a terrible, splitting headache as blood vessels in the brain dilate. These negative effects force you to run back to caffeine even if you want to stop.

I don't understand the combination of "hypersonic" and "space plane." I thought the key behind the US hypersonic plane was its ability to compress and use oxygen to increase its speed and function.

Here's a couple of links that compares and contrasts these two.

I don't understand the way the combination of the two would work.

Space Plane Link

Hypersonic Plane Link

Davak

I don't understand the combination of "hypersonic" and "space plane." I thought the key behind the US hypersonic plane was its ability to compress and use oxygen to increase its speed and function.

Here's a couple of links that compares and contrasts these two.

I don't understand the way the combination of the two would work.

Space Plane Link

Hypersonic Plane Link

Davak

Not to mention that he brings up fuel cells in the article/ad:
"Long-term fuel cells that convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity -- don't ask me how -- are a promising alternative."
Notice that he neglects to go into any basic details on fuel cells. I found this link by doing a google search on fuel cells.
It would have taken him very little effort to come up with a one or two sentence description.
Damn lazy journalist.

OK, you seem a lot better informed than I, so:

Why exactly is the clock an expected point of failure?

It seems to me that a super-sturdy clock is the smallest of challenges in a mission like this. I'm glad they considered the possibility of its failure, but can you or someone please clue me in as to why the clock of all things is so fragile?

Unless it auto-timezones to Martian time and finds itself in the year 2038...

Right here.

It is interesting that this old technology is being used with a bus, and they are adding batteries, but it certainly is not a break through.

... is how researchers have propagated the disease. In fact, the transmission means is unknown in part because we don't yet know the agent (as explained here). So, as in so many things, that the wolves might get and propagate the disease is just wild-assed FUD.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mram.htm

good article on MRAM. Thanks for the heads up.

What if we keep the high voltage idea and simply mount a power grid ?

He sure can drive to the nearest Toys-R-Us and buy a "My First 765kV power grid" junior kit, with all poles included. A 765kV transmition line is enough to supply 3.8 GW for a 100 miles distance (dropping to 2.0 GW if the distance is 400 miles).

The coolest thing with high voltage is that you can buy, in this same store, the infamous "Frankestein kit". It's basically a brainless Frankestein. You just have to find a brain that nobody is using.. I suggest you use the one from a 419 scam victim, as he probably won't even notice his brain is missing.

Ultimatelly, you could also run your very own nuclear plant. This should be enough to power your computer. But it's much harder to do. First you have to consult your local terrorist organization on how to get some uranium, and then your local mafia on how to deal with ambientalists.

English-readers can find Wage Statistics on Norwegian government officials here, where you would find the Average Ministry Salary in 2002 was 30,200 Kroner, or about $4,260. There is a footnote, however, indicating that costs of health services are not included.

Interestingly enough, I ran across this through Google: "I do not think any job is worth 10 times a prime minister's salary," said Minister of Finance Gudmund Restad (Centre) when asked about Tormod Hermansen's NOK 7 million salary.", where one could infer that the prime minister's salary is ~700,000 NOK, or $102,734 on 5/20/2003, the day of this report. By comparison, Pres Bush's salary is $400,000 (raised from $200,000 by Pres Clinton in 1999, the first raise since 1969).

Personally, the salary levels in USA's government are outrageous, given the rate of increase (or lack thereof) of the common person's salary. My personal political beliefs align with the Republican party, who used to represent reduction of government... and recent budget bloat really concerns me... And you are correct, our cultures are vastly different. I for one, do not understand how you can have a political party called the "Christian People's Party" who can expect to remain neutral on affairs of church & state. It's also discouraging to me that the average Norwegian citizen cannot differetiate between the concepts of capitalism and greed; there is quite a difference between valuing and rewarding the risks and contributions of individuals, versus rewarding administrators at obscene rates for playing numbers games and bending rules for personal gain.

Now you want to talk about wastes of money. Philadelphia just built 2 new stadiums for about 1.2 billion dollars. I wouldn't mind, save they the schools are chronically short funded, the new stadiums have half the seats of the old stadium, and nosebleeds cost $60. No one around here can afford that on a regular basis.

Bitch all you want about Boston wasting your money. You got infrastructure out of the deal. All we got was a stay of execution until the next time our sports teams want to play hardball. Damn it, and we had just paid off Veteren's Stadium...

So build more floating islands instead. 70% of Earth's wet surface area hasn't been claimed.

Okay folks, here's the plan: we live on the island until we perfect space travel and terraforming, then we go grab one of those other planets that no one's using right now.

And here's my plan, Oh Great Leader: we live on the island AS technology continues to advance exponentially anyway, thanks to ~6 billion interconnected minds feeding off each other ("IP" anti-progress be damned), then we move to a self-sufficient, offplanet island as soon as possible in order to minimize the chances of the The Great Filter wiping everyone out. In the unlikely event that planetside humanity doesn't wipe itself out, then tech will continue to advance to Singularity in short order, otherwise, progress will come to a standstill and we'll be spam in space island cans for quite a long while until we screw like rabbits to get our brain-count back up.

--

Ever stop to think that since a DVI signal gets decoded by the monitor that it might just be possible to sign those digital signals? Of course not, because you already know everything about DVI. Well here you go Einstein, read the last paragraph. I realize the site is geared towards 5 years olds but maybe you can send in a correction based on your profound knowledge of DVI signals.

The downstream information flows to all connected users, just like in an Ethernet network -- it's up to the individual network connection to decide whether a particular block of data is intended for it or not. On the upstream side, information is sent from the user to the CMTS -- other users don't see that data at all. The narrower upstream bandwidth is divided into slices of time, measured in milliseconds, in which users can transmit one "burst" at a time to the Internet. The division by time works well for the very short commands, queries and addresses that form the bulk of most users' traffic back to the Internet.

A CMTS will enable as many as 1,000 users to connect to the Internet through a single 6-MHz channel. Since a single channel is capable of 30 to 40 megabits per second (Mbps) of total throughput, this means that users may see far better performance than is available with standard dial-up modems. The single channel aspect, though, can also lead to one of the issues some users experience with cable modems.

The downstream information flows to all connected users, just like in an Ethernet network -- it's up to the individual network connection to decide whether a particular block of data is intended for it or not. On the upstream side, information is sent from the user to the CMTS -- other users don't see that data at all. The narrower upstream bandwidth is divided into slices of time, measured in milliseconds, in which users can transmit one "burst" at a time to the Internet. The division by time works well for the very short commands, queries and addresses that form the bulk of most users' traffic back to the Internet.

A CMTS will enable as many as 1,000 users to connect to the Internet through a single 6-MHz channel. Since a single channel is capable of 30 to 40 megabits per second (Mbps) of total throughput, this means that users may see far better performance than is available with standard dial-up modems. The single channel aspect, though, can also lead to one of the issues some users experience with cable modems.

Of course, eating it would only provide a temporary tracking solution.

How could one stop research in so important area of science called rocket engines?

How a government could to that?

There seems to be some kind of plot in it
(from Bruce Simpson's page):

The strange thing is that just a matter of months ago, they told me I could export the very same technology to Iran -- despite the fact that it is widely considered to be a terrorist sponsor and similar exports are prohibited in the USA.

And then the government decided shut it down.

Note also that israeli x prize team recruits serious brainpower.

If things are not about money (or sex) then politics must be involved.

I hope that such a genius person as Bruce will either join Xprize or find another way to continue his very important for science work on rocket engines.

So this must be pure science fiction? And this research is also fiction, then? If not, then laser energy can superheat air and cause sound problems. Why would it be so ridiculous for me to think a laser the size of a basketball hoop might not have the same effect? (Of course, if I had RTFA more carefully, I might have seen the energy reference -- you're right, it's small-scale.)

Why does air have to be turned into "superhot plasma" to make a sonic boom? A supersonic jet doesn't superheat air, per se, it displaces it. A nighthawk doesn't superheat the air, but produces a sonic boom with its tailfeathers.

And since when did anyone say anything about outer space? The event is happening in Colorado. (Not far from outer space, actually, but...)

And you don't have to be a jerk about how incredibly knowledgeable you are -- we get it without the barbs.

Remember, DSL is not a shared segment like Cable.

Depends on where you live. Unless you're really close to your CO, you don't have a direct copper line from your house to the CO.

No, but don't you see? There's a spinning gyroscope INSIDE the wheel hub that helps provide lateral stability. If the gyro is spinning fast enough, the device will have extreme difficulty tipping to either side at all, allowing the rear/front stability. (View the flash animation, and then visit your local children's museum and play with the bicycle tires you can hold while spinning)

This leads to the assumption then when turning the vehicle, the gryos slow down allowing the device to lean, and that leads to the question: How does it know if my lean is to turn, or if I'm falling over and corrections should be made in the gyros?

You are right about one thing, though. I don't see a physical way for it to rotate the tire beneath the rider the one way does on a unicycle. Is leaning the only way to turn the device? Even at low speed? Low speed turns would require more lean to turn the vehicle, and if more lean is allowed by the gyro, there will eventually be a point reached where the gyros can not recover, regardless of how fast they spin.

Remeber! Gyros can be used either as active stability devices or sensors. They arent' limited to one or the other.

I bet it's not as cool as the BMW Streetcarver. I want one, but no doubt I'd just write it off with my dismal 'skillz'.

Seriously, I would love some kind of powered skateboard, as they're very good for getting around tight parts of town ( and being able to pick them up is very convenient... ), but they're going to have to make them very easy riding ( perhaps with that suspension system from Snow Crash ) before it will ever take off with the masses.

the word 'conductivity' refers to a property of a material in respect to how it behaves in relation to electromagnetic engery, so I don't see this as being completely off the wall.

let me put you straight on some of the mechanics of optical/holographic memory. Firstly, it doesn't employ a rotating mechanism...

Your default posting score of 0 appears to have been earned justly.

Lastly, by saying that hard drives do not last long enough to be affected by events that happen in 'geological time' is an assumption. There is nothing to tell us for certain that the Earths' magnetic field will not flip tomorrow or next week, or next year. This is a real possibility within our lifetimes...

Is the Earth's magnetic field changing?

Indeed it is. It currently has a strength at the Earth's surface of 0.6 Gauss. But long term observations show that it is DECREASING at a rate of about 0.07 percent PER YEAR. This means that in 1500 years from now, it will only be about 35 percent as strong as it is today, and in 4000 years it will have a strength of practically zero.

As for your fear of people with mod points who find comments interesting...

Lastly, by saying that hard drives do not last long enough to be affected by events that happen in 'geological time' is an assumption. There is nothing to tell us for certain that the Earths' magnetic field will not flip tomorrow or next week, or next year. This is a real possibility within our lifetimes, just like the planet being hit by a meteor, or a mass of ejected solar material - and a lot more likely (and preferable in my opinion). The energies involved are colossal and are equivalent to massive EMP on a global scale. When the magnetic flux of the planet reaches a chatoic mode it can happen quickly and continue to flip rapidly for a very long time.

As for your fear of people with mod points who find comments interesting, I suggest you take a walk outside in a park of something and take some deep breaths to help overcome this fear ;-)

Shark-jumping

How 'Monster Garage' Works

Twisted metal mind

Almost-related ramblings of a software developer

I don't work in that industry, but AFAIK as often as not the money flows the other direction.

See for example How Top 40 Radio Works.

Or oddles of links on Google.

-Peter

Once you read about how the electorial college works, you'll realize how stupid your post sounds, especially the part about Gore receiving ~500,000 more votes nationwide than Bush being in any way relevant.

One correction. DU rounds do burn as they hit - chemically burn by combining with oxygen in the atmosphere. One of the benefits of DU as opposed to, say, lead, is that this burning "sharpens" thr round as it penetrates, so that the momentum is still concentrated over a small area, instead of squashing flat and dissipating its energy over a large area. To contradict you, I don't think DU is particularly hard - but this self-sharpening effect means that it doesn't matter. It is increadibly dense: much much denser than hard materials such as titanium This increases the penetrating power of DU. See here

The downside is that this means that the uranium ends up as finely divided uranium oxide which, for purely chemical reasons, is very toxic and has no breakdown mechanism. On particular, the wrecked target vehicl is highly pollited and should only be entered with protective gear. However, they temd to be left in the countryside after the war for gawpers - particularly children - to climb all over.

Mining itself does not make sense as a first step. The first step is power generation. We need to place a few microwave transmitting solar power stations into orbit first. Then we could use some of that energy to drive lasers that would push materials into space at a low cost. Then we could use those technologies and materials to build bases to mine from.

The benefits of this sort of progression is that when the power satellites are not being used to push spacecraft they can be used to generate almost 100% clean energy with no chemical pollutants, particulates, radioactive waste, damming of rivers, or CO2 emissions. The power stations would pay for themselves quickly and would actually have the space program generating revenue rather than just being a cost.

why Santa Cruz Operations Inc, went from making such cool skateboards to becoming the evil bloodsucking parasitic empire it has become. Must be more money in taking the legal system for a ride, than it is teenagers down the street.

Plus, the moon ain't got no atmosphere last time I checked. So who cares if we got water up there? We gonna suffocate anyway.

The future ain't what it used to be. Alas we have no paper clothes, moving sidewalks, flying cars, or orgasmatrons. Yet no one could have predicted the spork. Look at how it revolutionized our fast food industry. NOT a day goes by when I think about all those sporks I got at Kentucky Fried Chicken (before they changed their name to KFC). Truly a failure of imagination on the part of our futurists and science fiction writers.

If there is one unpredicted technological gadget that we must all worship and bow before it is the beer widget. A miracle! Of the widgeted stouts I've had both Beamish and Guiness. And Boddington's is pretty tasty too.

This will be worthwhile if for nothing else than finally giving all us nerds the "data crystals" we have always wanted from various crap sci-fi...

Data crystals are based on holographic data storage. Holographic memory has the advantage of preserving vast amounts of data throughout the volume of the crystal, not just on the surface, plus if it's chipped or broken each piece still retains the entire holographic image. It's completely different from any data storage method used today, including this one.

For various reasons, mostly cost and implementation, holographic data storage has never materialized. You can read a little more about it at HowStuffWorks and other places. (I googled for "holographic memory data storage" and found that page at the top.)

According to HowStuffWorks.com, the SCO boys have killed about 12 trees. That's pretty damn impressive.
Or, to look at it another way, if you figure that one sheet of paper is 0.005" thick, that'd make a stack about 415 feet high, or roughly 270 cubic feet worth of paper.

"In other news, the forests in and around the Lindon, Utah area have slowly been disappearing for some unknown reason"

Outlets in the US are 120 volts DC. FYI. And your lightbulb example is hogwash. Lightbulbs will burn out no matter what. It has to do with the resistance in the filament which causes them to glow in the first place. Think of it like a dam, when you flip the switch on, the current suddenly meets resistance at the weakest points of the bulb, where the filament attaches. Occassionally it will superheat and boom, light bulb goes dead.

Here, go read up on how light bulbs and flourescent lights work.

Now if you're through making wild accusations, perhaps you can explain what precisely operating systems and printers have in common with batteries. I'm not even going to attempt to argue with you on those points on /. which is why you used them. But, regardless, if A is a square and B is a square that doesn't mean C is a square.

Outlets in the US are 120 volts DC. FYI. And your lightbulb example is hogwash. Lightbulbs will burn out no matter what. It has to do with the resistance in the filament which causes them to glow in the first place. Think of it like a dam, when you flip the switch on, the current suddenly meets resistance at the weakest points of the bulb, where the filament attaches. Occassionally it will superheat and boom, light bulb goes dead.

Here, go read up on how light bulbs and flourescent lights work.

Now if you're through making wild accusations, perhaps you can explain what precisely operating systems and printers have in common with batteries. I'm not even going to attempt to argue with you on those points on /. which is why you used them. But, regardless, if A is a square and B is a square that doesn't mean C is a square.

Ok, smart guy...

I admit, I was wrong about the deep space listening network. (opens mouth and temporarily inserts foot)
Taking foot out now...

1) If Voyager is passing out of the Solar System into a region of space that has less material than the greatest vaccuum man has ever made. This means there's virtually nothing to interfere with signal transmission out there. Meaning there won't be much signal degradation once it passes this barrier
2) Signal attenuation due to distance is on a logarithmic scale, meaning that the further it gets away, the signal loss in dB is less and less. Again, meaning there isn't going to be much signal degradation for the next 17 years.
3) Offtopic slightly but, Since the antenna on Voyager is directional, the more out of whack it is over there, the less chance you have of getting signal to and from. Bigger antennas aren't going to help if the signal is hitting the antenna from the wrong direction. Anything done on Voyager's end would have lots more effect than anything done here.

Here is a link to a free space loss calculator. What it would show you is that the scale of free space loss in logarithmic. EG. Attenuation of signal is less and less the further it gets from Earth. Try taking a look at the difference in signal loss between a trillion miles, a billion miles, and a million miles. There are only going to be about 6dB of signal loss if Voyager doubles its distance in the next 17 years.
Here is a link about Voyager and its 23 watt radios and directional antennas.

In essence, building some really big antennas down here will do just about dick. You can try and paint me as numbnuts, but you'd be wrong.

Much simplier approach, which is widely used here in Canada and
in the most of Europe, is to embed sensors in a form of loops of wire
into the road on each side of the intersection. The loop can sense
the car directly above it, which allows streetlight controller to learn
the length of the line-up on every side and switch the lights accordingly.

Simple design rules :)

They already do that. They're called proximity detectors, and they determine when cars are sitting on top of them. They work based on induction.

Sometimes you can see where they were embedded in the road, especially if the light was retrofitted. Look for a patched-over hole in the pavement directly underneath where the first car would pull up at a stop light.

That is why some lights only change when your car is sitting there. For additional fun, you might be caught behind some dingus who, for some reason, stopped too far back to trigger the sensor. You're going to be there a while.

With CPU's operating at or above microwave oven frequencies, maybe Intel is just trying to sheild us from the harmfull radiations.
Hey and since the CPU clock is a square have couldn't it even have highger more dangerous harmonics?

Here is a nice link about why they would be toxic: Toxicity

Remember when "Low Fat" products were all the rage? The only problem with "low fat" is low fat usually doesn't mean low calories... Take Snackwell cookies for example, low fat doesn't mean shit if you're planning on eating the entire box in one sitting. Low carb is just another trend that is totally meaningless if you think it keeps you from counting calories.

The only reason diets like Atkins work at all is simple: just about everything has carbohydrates in it! There's so few things you can eat if you strictly adhere to the diet that you inevitably end up eating LESS CALORIES.

Howstuffworks has an excellent article on dieting and the gist of it is, you guessed it - limiting your calories consumed.

If you are willing to tolerate counting calories and figure out exactly what you need to maintain your desired weight, you can pretty much eat whatever you want. 100 calories of carbs = 100 calories of fat. If you're the type of person that needs a "banned foods"-type list to really feel like you're on a diet, Atkins probably is for you. If you're the type that can push away from the table - you probably don't need to do anything more than watch your calories.

Actualy, they swiped the Samhain holiday from the Celts who were around since 800 B.C. From the entry at howstuffworks.com:

Originally, Christians observed All Saints' Day on May 13. But in the eighth century, Pope Gregory III moved it to November 1. Officially, the Church chose this new date to mark the papal dedication of a church honoring the saints. But many historians believe the Church really moved the observance to correspond with Samhain and other pagan fall festivals.

That's how.

Weight sensors are for truck weigh stations. You're probably referring to an induction coil embedded in the road farther away from the light so it knows you're coming.

But is this mechanism really needed on a digital camera with a good LCD viewfinder? Doesn't it just drive up the cost and complexity of the camera? Also an LCD viewfinder has at least one great advantage over the optical one, since it shows you how the final image would be exposed. I can't really see any merit of an optical solution if the LCD resolution and quality gets good enough.

So, in short I think the SLR in "SLR" is overhyped. Give me a digital camera with good manual adjustment possibilites and exchangable optics, and I would be happy!

For example, "goop" gets fed to a cracker (catalytic or thermal) which (oddly enough) cracks the C20's into smaller pieces. While one typically aims for the the gasoline range as the max product out of cracking units (assuming that's where the money is), going down to C1-C2 is not difficult - you just have longer catalyst contact times or higher temperatures.

The separated hydrogen and oxygen are just portable forms of energy... a clean energy. They burn together, and the output is water vapor.

Described here. Do you know how fuel cells work?

They use a simiar process in rocket engines using liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

Lets see...
The Blur is 5 minutes and 30 seconds into the movie, that means that member X leaked this film...

I guess you could remove a few frames to change the time stamp though =/
but if the watermarks are placed at 5,8,10 etc minute intervals it may be hard to remove.

Read this

A common misconception is that there are just these ~10 'Academy Gods' that grant worthiness to movies. The academy is a semi-diverse group of over 5000 members in the film-making industry.

How calories work.