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Yeah Britain used to launh rockets from woomera. Probably the aussi government did too. No private rockets tho.

New Zealand is definately a separate country from aussi, and there is a lot of sporting rivalry. (we beat them at rugby union generally, and they beat us at rugby league. We even beat them at cricket when Sir Richard Hadlee was still playing.

And NZ bred horses win the Melbourne Cup ..

We let you win (condescending smirk)

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~woomera/history.htm
Would the Japanese launch in 96 count as private?
Damn, that's an ugly website.

A colleague of mine is the project manager for the HyShot trial. It is being conducted at the Australian Defence Force's Woomera test and evaluation range and shooting north-west across the Australian desert.

Woomera and nearby areas has a long history of trials; several British designed rockets were trialled there, and several satellites were launched to earth orbit. Maralinga was one Australian site of British atom bomb tests in the late '40s and '50s.

HyShot is intended to be recovered, but it is a large area in which it might land. Watch this space!

Do you mean like this ? Linux One Page Manual Warning, it's a PDF, but it's pretty handy to me. Please dont kill his poor server.

I'd take care, myself, considering what else might be under the ice.

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~mjones/amor/

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~mjones/amor/index. html

Plus, there's always Amor for all your "little animated character" needs (also included with KDE in the "toys" package).

Yessireebob, KDE is one great desktop ;-)

Damn, I would have seen it too except for the fact that I broke my leg trying to go down those stairs which were missing...

For those who missed this reference, take a look at mid-chapter 1 on this page.

- Graff

At the risk of being redundant, here's where to play online INFOCOM games...
http://infocom.elsewhere.org/ Telnet mode
http://www.saturn.powerup.com.au/ddesoto/infocom.h tm Java
---

Australia became the fourth country to launch a satellite (WRESAT) way back in 1967.

Actually it appears you are trolling, but I'll bite anyway (its late :) ).

1) I have heard of Cassini, it is an intersting exploration probe of the Saturn system. As an aside where do you get your Pu toxicity data? Here's a link to a paper on the subject by Bernard Cohen. Do you have information from a radiation health researcher to back your claims?

2) In order to expolore the outer solar system there are good reasons to use plutonium as a power source (in an RTG, Radioisotope Thermal Generator). It is compact (low mass/energy), long lived, and reliable. Other possible power sources have inherently serious problems.

3) Also they do contain the Pu in many layers of protection in case of an accidental reentry to prevnt the release of the Pu in the atmosphere. Perhaps the press has been "nonchalant" because the danger is miniscule and only the extremists are upset by a non-existant danger.

Hey there,

I'm one of the organisers of IF2K (InstallFest 2000), and I really like your idea. Perhaps we'll hand out copies of the One Page Linux Manual at all the fests...

Thanks heaps!

If NEST doesn't have *immediate* access to the information they need, bad things will happen, like cities being atomized or poisoned by plutonium.

Cities atomized? How?

The toxicity of plutonium is a myth. What's worse, it's also pseudoscientific nonsense perpetuated by muddy thinking. I hesitate to post a link for fear of tanking an innocent web server, but here it is. Here's another link with more numbers, and another.

It's not poisonous in the chemical sense. There are any number of common materials that are more toxic chemically than plutonium. The chemical tocxity, if there is any (it has not been observered) is completely insignificant compared to its radiation effects. It is most dangerous when inhaled, since it is an alpha emitter and can then raise the risk of lung cancer. Even so, there are no peer-reviewed studies showing that plutonium is extremely dangerous when inhaled. This is just one of those old canards that will probably never die.

Sure, if the Plutonium was carefully divided up into 0.1 microgram doses and surgically implanted in the lungs of everyone in the USA.

According to The Myth of Plutonium Toxicity, inhaling 10 micrograms of Plutonium should result in an one-in-twenty risk of cancer (1/200 risk of cancer per microgram).

Plutonium is nasty stuff but its dangers have been grossly exaggerated by some anti-nuclear activists.

It is easy to complain. But realize that you are complaining in complacency. In some countries people are still killed, just for complaining. I know you've heard that before, and you probably think its droll, but its still true. Open your mind.

Its kinda odd that it is so popular in the US to be so anti-US. Oh well.

...you'd better be sure you know what you're talking about.

The Cassinni problem was never detonation. If it re-enters the atmosphere the wrong way (if it burns up) the plutonium in
it will be vaporized into fine particles and potentially spread over a large area.

Even smallest amount of inhaled plutonium is *very bad* for you. Studies on dogs have shown that 1,400 pCi of
plutionium per kilogram of body weight (exposed in one day) caused bone cancer after 4 years. A pCi (picocurie) is on
billionth of a mCi. One mCi of of plutonium 238 weighs .00006 gm. So, assuming you weigh about 150 pounds (~68 kg)
get bone cancer by inhaling 5.7 x 10e-9 grams of plutonium.

Cassinni is carrying 27kg of plutonium 238.

Of course, NASA claims this will never happen.

Post some references for this info. The toxicity of plutonium is overrated. Check out http://www.powerup.com.au/~dominion/ff/p22.htm.

1 lb of plutonium is more than enough to kill every person in NYC by just dumping it in the water supply.

That's false. You shouldn't rely on Ralph Nader for science. Just like y2k, the toxicity of plutonium is over-hyped. Caffeine is as poisonous than plutonium. http://www.powerup.com.au/~dominion/ff/p22.htm