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Deep Space 1 Completes Comet Fly-by
Saint Aardvark writes: "All right...Space.com is reporting here that NASA's Deep Space 1 probe successfully made it through Comet Borrelly -- pretty good for a spacecraft using up the last of its fuel, 'way past its expected lifetime, doing something it wasn't designed to do'. About 30 pix are being downloaded right now, and there's a press conference planned for Tuesday. In the meantime, read NASA's press release here. Way to go, DS-1 and NASA!"
It should be called: "Deep Ass"
ISAAC ASIMOV
Gold, The Final Science Fiction Collection
Part One - The Final Stories
Left To Right
Typed by Bateau
Robert L. Forward, a plump, cherubic physicist of Hughes Research Laboratories at Malibu, and occasional science fiction writer, was demonstrating the mechanism in his usual bright and articulate manner.
"As you see," he said, "we have here a large spinning ring, or doughnut, of particles compressed by an appropriate magnetic field. The particles are moving at 0.95 times the speed of light under conditions which, if I am correct, a change in parity can be induced in some object that passes through the hole of the doughnut."
"A change in parity?" I said. "You mean left and right will interchange?"
"_Something_ will interchange. I'm not sure what. My own belief is that eventually, something like this will change particles into antiparticles and vice versa. This will be the way to obtain an indefinitely large supply of antimatter which can then by used to power the kind of ships that would make interstellar travel possible."
"Why not try it out?" I said. "Send a beam of protons through the hole."
"I've done that. Nothing happens. The doughnut is not powerful enough. But my mathematics tells me that the more organized the sample of matter, the more likely it is that an interchange, such as left to right, will take place. If I can show that such a change will take place on highly organized matter, I can obtain a grant that will enable me to greatly strengthen this device."
"Do you have something in mind as a test?"
"Absolutely," said Bob. "I have calculated that a human being is just sufficiently highly organized to undergo the transformation, so I'm going to pass though the doughnut hole myself."
"You can't do that, Bob," I said in alarm. "You might kill yourself."
"I can't ask anyone else to take the chance. It's _my_ device."
"But even if it succeeds, the apex of your heart will be pointed to the right, your liver will be on the left. Worse, all your amino acids will shift from L to D, and all your sugars from D to L. You will no longer be able to eat and digest."
"Nonsense," said Bob. "I'll just pass through a second time and then I'll be exactly as I was before."
And without further ado, he climbed a small ladder, balanced himself over the hole, and dropped through. He landed on a rubber mattress, and then crawled out from under the doughnut.
"How do you feel?" I asked anxiously.
"Obviously, I'm alive," he said.
"Yes, but how do you _feel?_"
"Perfectly normal," said Bob, seeming rather dissapointed. "I feel exactly as I did before I jumped through."
"Well, of course you would, but where is your heart?"
Bob placed his hand on his chest, felt around, then shook his head. "The heartbeat is on the left side, as usual--Wait, let's check my appendicitis scar."
He did, then looked up savagely at me. "Right where it's supposed to be. Nothing happened. There goes all my chance at a grant."
I said hopefully, "Perhaps some other change took place."
"No." Bob's mercurial temperament had descended into gloom. "Nothing has changed. Nothing at all. I'm as sure of that as I'm sure that my name is Robert L. Backward."
IASF 1/87
After arresting Abdul Hakim Murad, Phillipine intelligence agents did what was neccesary to get pertinent information from him...
"For weeks, agents hit him with a chair and a long piece of wood, forced water into his mouth, and crushed lighted cigarettes into his private parts," wrote journalists Marites Vitug and Glenda Gloria in "Under the Crescent Moon," an acclaimed book on Abu Sayyaf. "His ribs were almost totally broken and his captors were surprised he survived."
He broke and revealed the plot to assasinate the Pope during a visit to Manila and bomb 11 US airliners simultaneously.
Sorry, CONTOUR is too similar to "kontour" (formerly Killustrator). Perhaps NASA should have a little more respect for intellectual property rights!
Spootnik, why do u post Exception stack traces?
Just curious.
the AC
Well, since we can't attack Afghanistan in through normal methods (http://slashdot.org/articles/01/09/22/228250.shtm l), I bet NASA's trying to use Deep Space 1 to direct the comet towards Afghanistan! Think about it...it would take out all those pesky caves....
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Horror/Sci Fi writer Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
I wonder if tonight your sister will suck my cock. Again.
I wonder if tonight she'll suck my cock, and I'll punch her in the face until she has bleeding gashes. Then I'll cum on her wounds and put the blood, semen, and a fresh pile of your dad's crap into a blender, whip it up, and make your mom drink it. Your mom is a filthy bitch.
I just had an out-of-body experience, during which I saw the disgusting end of Anonymous Coward, who choke himself to death by trying to give oral sex to an octopus. I then took the opportunity to post from his account.