Alright, 15 million over 200 years comes to about 75,000 per year. So how is that "small potatoes" to say, 5.7 million Jews between Jan 1942 and May 1945? Or over 6 million in 4 years in China or 40 million under Mao from 1949-1975?
Since you brought it up, using Amnesty International's estimate of 1.4 million deaths, about 20 percent of the population would have died between 1975 and 1978 in Cambodia.
"The Khmer Rouge regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people, through execution, starvation and forced labor. It is often said to have been one of the most violent regimes of the 20th century -- on par with the regimes of Adolf Hitler and, in the views of many, also Joseph Stalin. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled and time in power, it was probably the most lethal regime of the 20th century."
"In power, the Khmer Rouge carried out a radical program that included isolating the country from foreign influence, closing schools, hospitals and factories, abolishing banking, finance and currency, outlawing all religions, confiscating all private property and relocating people from urban areas to collective farms where forced labor was widespread. The purpose of this policy was to turn Cambodians into "old people" through agricultural labour. It resulted in massive deaths through executions, work exhaustion, illness, and starvation. The motive for the evacuations was ideologically reflected in the Maoist doctrine which the Khmer Rouge followed, which praised the rural peasants and detested urban city dwellers."
They killed people for knowing how to read, don't call that "small potatoes". All slavery is bad and unjust and all slavery makes human beings into cattle.
The city was founded in 1540 by Spanish conquistadores as San Francisco de Campeche atop the preexisting Maya city of Canpech or Kimpech.
Now we know that the Cortes expedition had some African slaves in it. Here is a question on the subject, while research is done on the many aspects of European Slavery, how much research is done on inter-African slavery or Islamic slavery in regards to Africa? I know we hear a bunch about slavery in the United States, but how about the United Kingdom or French slavery?
Heck, what about trans-tribal slavery in the Americas? While working on a paper about the Cortes expedition there were references in many texts and documents about the Aztecs having slaves, but much more time and space devoted to the few slaves the expedition had with them.
I don't agree with the assessment of Google Earth. There is alot of "non-tourist" regions in higher res photos than just the tourist spots. For example, rural central Oregon isn't exactly a tourist region, yet it's higher res than say Baghdad Iraq.
I'll do a quick, non-tourist tour for crap res or higher res.
Central Oregon - Higher Res Mountain Home AFB Idaho - Higher Res North Central Navada - A mix Buffalo Wyoming - Higher Res ANWR - medium res Eagle Butte SD - Low, low res Pyongyang DPRK - Higher res Rangoon Burma - medium res Desert south of Riyadh - higher res
So really, for a free application, it does a good job.
"Civ 4 was so buggy that it was unplayable with ATI cards (ie half the market). Even for nvidia owners there were graphics glitches, random crashes to desktop, memory leaks, and all other manner of nastiness."
Huh? I got Civ 4 the day it came out and it was completely playable with ATI cards (ie half the market). I never had random crashes to desktop or any sort of nastiness with it, pre patch.
I saw one of the giant pacific octopus they have at the Seattle Aquarium in 2002. We were in Seattle for a football game, so I was wearing Vikings Purple and Gold, as the Octopus came out and looked us over, it would change to the colors of what it was looking at.
My girlfriend wearing gold and yellow, the critter takes a yellow hue, then purple when it looks at me, then grey and blue as it looks my friend over. Cool stuff.
I've read about them in Aquariums that when they touch someone and the Human pulls back fast, they think it's play time and you get to hold tenticles for a good half hour before the critter thinks play time is over.
Off the invertibrate track, I have a Green Iguana who lives in my living room on a large stainless steel "habitrail" and that Lizard is suprisingly smart for something whose brain stopped developing about 300 MYA. He is easily as smart as a cat or a dog, but without motivation, he was very easily house broken, knows when football games will be on to watch, will indicate is displeasure with something on the radio and tell us to turn the TV on.
From what I understand Octopi are easily smarter than a cat or a dog, so the one in the video might just be trying to play with the lights and thrusters.
I've read this twice today since it was on Fark about 8 hours ago and I have a problem with Mister Oberg's story.
From Encyclopedia Astronautica - http://www.astronautix.com/flights/sts51l.htm "At this point in its trajectory, while traveling at a Mach number of 1.92 at an altitude of 46,000 feet, the Challenger was totally enveloped in the explosive burn. The Challenger's reaction control system ruptured and a hypergolic burn of its propellants occurred as it exited the oxygen-hydrogen flames. The reddish brown colors of the hypergolic fuel burn are visible on the edge of the main fireball. The Orbiter, under severe aerodynamic loads, broke into several large sections which emerged from the fireball. Separate sections that can be identified on film include the main engine/tail section with the engines still burning, one wing of the Orbiter, and the forward fuselage trailing a mass of umbilical lines pulled loose from the payload bay. The Explosion 73 seconds after liftoff claimed crew and vehicle. Cause of explosion was determined to be an O-ring failure in right SRB. Cold weather was a contributing factor. Launch Weight: 268,829 lbs. "
"At 73.124 seconds,. a circumferential white vapor pattern was observed blooming from the side of the External Tank bottom dome. This was the beginning of the structural failure of hydrogen tank that culminated in the entire aft dome dropping away. This released massive amounts of liquid hydrogen from the tank and created a sudden forward thrust of about 2.8 million pounds, pushing the hydrogen tank upward into the intertank structure. At about the same time, the rotating right Solid Rocket Booster impacted the intertank structure and the lower part of the liquid oxygen tank. These structures failed at 73.137 seconds as evidenced by the white vapors appearing in the intertank region.
Within milliseconds there was massive, almost explosive, burning of the hydrogen streaming from the failed tank bottom and liquid oxygen breach in the area of the intertank.
At this point in its trajectory, while traveling at a Mach number of 1.92 at an altitude of 46,000 feet, the Challenger was totally enveloped in the explosive burn. The Challenger's reaction control system ruptured and a hypergolic burn of its propellants occurred as it exited the oxygen-hydrogen flames. The reddish brown colors of the hypergolic fuel burn are visible on the edge of the main fireball. The Orbiter, under severe aerodynamic loads, broke into several large sections which emerged from the fireball. Separate sections that can be identified on film include the main engine/tail section with the engines still burning, one wing of the Orbiter, and the forward fuselage trailing a mass of umbilical lines pulled loose from the payload bay."
From Mister Oberg's story
"The shuttle did not explode in the common definition of that word. There was no shock wave, no detonation, no "bang" -- viewers on the ground just heard the roar of the engines stop as the shuttle's fuel tank tore apart, spilling liquid oxygen and hydrogen which formed a huge fireball at an altitude of 46,000 ft. (Some television documentaries later added the sound of an explosion to these images.) But both solid-fuel strap-on boosters climbed up out of the cloud, still firing and unharmed by any explosion. Challenger itself was torn apart as it was flung free of the other rocket components and turned broadside into the Mach 2 airstream. Individual propellant tanks were seen exploding -- but by then, the spacecraft was already in pieces."
The Shuttle at that time was made up of the Orbiter, a Fuel Tank and two Solid Rocket Boosters, there was an explosion, so I think Mister Oberg is wrong for saying it did not "explode in the common definition of that word". It blew up.
While I've not had anything as bad as Andy's problems, I had a stroke in April of 2005 but I've been able to work through most of the issues and medication helps. I lost the abilty to read for the most part, to write, I can't drive, I lost about 60% of the strength on my left side and about 90% of my fine motor skills and a host of other problems.
Treasure your ability to read, write, drive, think, live, because they can be taken from you in an instant even if you live the healthiest of lives.
I regained the ability to read and write, but now I'm faced with a medicated haze or blinding pain and the chance of a siezure, many others like Andy won't regain some of thier abilities.
No, because a warranted search, right or wrong, at least has some legal precedence and appeal means. Even the most invasive searches under PATRIOT at least have some Judges saying yea or nay and even under the most agressive view of PATRIOT, the citizens of the United States are not being blocked at the same extent the PRC's government will block searches.
The what the DoJ is asking for is not the same as what the PRC will block.
Censorship of information in China will be a messy deal for Google. Communist China is an interesting mix of ancient China, hyper-nationalism, pragmatism, Communism, paranoia, expansion and protection of traditional boundries. So what all might get blocked on Google.cn? Oh hell, anything about anyone but China owning the Spratley's, anything about the Republic of China, Tibet, the Dali Lama who isn't backed by the Chinese, and who knows what territory/expansion issue the Chinese might come up with in the next 5 to 20 years.
They didn't have to go into China, no one is pointing a gun at Google's head, nor will they go away for not going into China. Instead, Google "don't be evil" the Company is aiding and abetting the censorship of 1.3 billion people. Huzzah Google!
What will kill film cameras will be the end of processing chemicals. As makers phase out thier production or the cost rises too high less and less film will be shot.
I bet it's 10 years and then the cost will become too high for 95% of film photographers.
If you take a class on Palestine-Israel, from my experiance having taken three over the years, about 10% of the class are pretty radical. I've been in classes where folks will claim that Israel gave people in the Sinai the plague and that AIDS was invented by the CIA and Mossad to kill Blacks and Arabs.
All it takes is a comment not condeming the Arabs and Palestinians and these people will denounce you and shout down your questions/comments everytime you raise your hand and the professors will do nothing.
I'm the quiet student who asks questions in class sparingly. My papers and exams don't use too many capital letters, and when I say I was graded down, it was a B+ rather than the A I should have gotten, which I was my payment for my focus.
Why was my point of view in the piece? That's easy, write about a ten year period in Israeli history or Palestinian history. I focused on the Arab Israeli Wars from 1967 to 1977, Six Day War, War of Attrition, Ramadan War and Camp David Accords, looking at the military aspects of those three conflicts and the root cause of why Egypt and Israel signed a peace. There was no reason to dock my grade, or anyone else's for presenting a accurate and well researched history of those three wars. If there had been other comments in the paper or corrections, that is one thing, but to be docked for "focus" is wrong. Your comment that it is legitimate comes without any knowledge of the paper, the topic or the content, so you have no idea if it is legitimate or not.
As for an axe to grind, I don't have one, the professor who docked me down for my "focus" is my Thesis Advisor by my choosing.
Now that I think about there have been other times as a Student in Public Higher Ed that I've to tread lightly.
I took a "Capstone" class for my BS which are required for all Undergrads, 6 Quarter Credits and the one I took was on Grant Writing for Non-Profits. In the class, which was Fall Term of 2004, I was one of three males in the class of 18 students. Every day ramping up to the Election we went around the table to talk about what is on our mind. Increasingly it would focus on the upcoming election where we were told by the Professor that the Republicans were no different from the Taliban, that Gays would be imprisoned by a Bush re-election and that all men are rapists deep down and of the three males in the class, two of us would or had raped woman.
Any attempts to shed some light on things, like the fact that all former Presidents talked about God in thier speeches, were denounced as "off-topic" or ignored in our "feel free to speak your mind" round tables.
So to pass the class, people had to suck it up and let the BS flow out for four hours a week, four hours a week I paid for to learn something.
In a couple quick looks over the comments I see alot of hand-wringing and talking about how this is a slippery slope to Nazism and oh nos about the Conservatives beating up the Liberals and how the profs need to be able to speak freely.
What about the student's rights to an education and to speak freely?
I'm a Graduate Student in History, I focus on the Military History in the Middle East since 1918 and the American West from 1865 to the close of the Frontier in 1900. I've been graded down for writing about the Israeli Defense Forces vs. Egypt and Syria rather than focusing on the Palestinian "cause" in the Arab-Israeli Wars. I've been told flat out lies about the Conquistadors and when I tried to cite facts have been shouted down for it.
I'm not paticularly Conversative and I don't spout off in classes but I know that I can't take any class I want from any professor I want because there are some who do grade you down for your outlook on History and the subject matter you write about. In Israeli-Palestinian classes as I said before, I've been docked for looking at Arab-Israeli conflicts and history rather than the "occupation and resistance" even after clearing the subject with the Professors. I've had papers returned with a lower grade with the justifaction of "you pay for your focus". I've had TAs stop speaking to me and refusing to let me ask questions because I told them I lived in Israel, was attacked by Hezbollah and have more of an Israeli viewpoint to the Golan Heights.
Today, in Public Universities I don't see where a Student, at least in History, can study what they want and look at a subject from all sides because many professors either won't let you or punish you for it.
So...Hitler and McCarthy are at the same level of scum?
No, they aren't and pointed at evidence that "Tail-Gunner" Joe was right is not the same as saying Hitler was right.
The fact is that since the McCarthy hearings all we in the United States hear is that he was oh so wrong for pointing at people being the dirty Communists when in fact everyone he pointed at were good people not in bed with the stinky communists, and hell if they were Commies...so what? The Commies did nothing bad but help us fight the real evil...Hitler!
So here we have someone pointed out that declassified American intelligence, not to mention the KGB archives, points out that hey MacCarthy might not have been 100% but on the right track and you Godwin him.
I call bullshit, it's not at all the same as saying some of the Jews the Third Reich killed were bad, it's stating that hey there might have been some point to McCarthy's blathering. So don't go pointing "Godwin" at the poster.
It will I've read, use it's instruments to analyze this, but now I can't find the link for it.
Cool stuff "The spacecraft carries two computer systems, the Command and Data Handling system and the Guidance and Control processor. Each of the two systems is duplicated for redundancy, making for a total of four computers. The processor used is the Mongoose-V, a 12 MHz radiation-hardened version of the MIPS R3000 CPU. New Horizons will record scientific instrument data at each encounter and then transmit the data after each encounter is complete. Data storage is done on two low-power solid-state recorders (one primary, one backup) holding up to 8 gigabytes (64 gigabits) each. Communication will be via X band at a rate of 768 bit/s from Pluto to a 70 m Deep Space Network dish (38 Kbit/s at Jupiter).
The craft includes a payload of 430,000 names (on a compact disc), a piece of Scaled Composites SpaceShipOn], and an American flag among other mementos. Principal investigator Alan Stern confirmed that some ashes of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh were aboard the spacecraft."
Re:Don't suppose the No Nukes freaks will apologiz
on
Pluto Probe Launches
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· Score: 5, Informative
The RTGs in question here are not just Plutonium slugs.
Remember there have been accidents with them in the past.
During the three mission accidents that did occur, the RTGs performed as predicted. The Transit 5-BN-3 mission was aborted because of launch vehicle failure. The RTG burned up on reentry as designed with the plutonium dispersed in the upper atmosphere. The RTG design was changed shortly after that to accommodate intact reentry. The next accident was with the Nimbus-B-1 that was aborted shortly after launch by a range safety destruct. The RTG was recovered, with no release of plutonium, and the heat sources were reused in later missions
The failure of the Apollo 13 mission meant that the Lunar Module reentered the atmosphere carrying an RTG and burnt up over Fiji. The RTG itself survived reentry of the Earth's atmosphere intact, plunging into the Tonga trench in the Pacific Ocean. The US Department of Energy has conducted seawater tests and determined that the graphite casing, which was designed to withstand reentry, is stable and no release of plutonium will occur. Subsequent investigations have found no increase in the natural background radiation in the area.
In order to minimise the risk of the radioactive material being released, the fuel is stored in individual modular units with their own heat shielding. They are surrounded by a layer of iridium metal and encased in high-strength graphite blocks. These two materials are corrosion- and heat-resistant. Surrouding the graphic blocks is an aeroshell, designed to protect the entire assembly against the heat of reentering the earth's atmosphere. The plutonium fuel is also stored in a ceramic form that is heat-resistant, minimising the risk of vaporization and aerosolization. The ceramic is also highly insoluble.
Why is it that My Lai is mentioned all the time but the Tet '68 mass killings by the Communists in and around Hue are never mentioned?
During the months and years that followed the battle, dozens of mass graves were discovered in and around Hue containing nearly 3000 civilians. In some of the mass graves victims were found bound together; some appeared tortured; others were even reported to have appeared buried alive. Estimates vary on the number executed, with a low of a couple hundred to a high of several thousand. Commonly villiage leaders who had not shown satisfactory Communist leanings during the time the Republic of South Vietnam ruled the area were murdered.
The NLF set up provisional authorities shortly after capturing Hue, and was charged with removing the existing government administration from power within the city and replacing it with a revolutionary administration. Working from lists of "cruel tyrants and reactionary elements" previously developed by VC intelligence officers, many people were to be rounded up following the initial hours of the attack. These included South Vietnamese soldiers, civil servants, political party members, local religious leaders, American civilians and other foreigners. These individuals, according to VC documents captured during and after the siege, were to be taken out of the city and held and punished for their "crimes against the Vietnamese people".
At My Lai between 350 and 510 civilians were killed, so the Hue/Tet killings were much bloodier and more orchestrated, so why is My Lai always brought up when the Communists killed more?
I don't think that a drug like this will be used to facilitate war crimes because a Military needs discipline and rape/murder goes against discipline. An Army is a mob and shows some mob behaviors which are tempered in a military unit by training, routine and dispiline, the US military, NATO, Russian, Israeli and those militaries which closely follow these doctrines will not allow a drug which breaks down the discipline to be dispensed.
Except for the fact that there is alot of oil around the world. Lots and lots. If we just count the easy to get stuff, right now we are looking at 45-60 years of it. If we bring in the Shale Oil and harder to extract tar sands, another 90-180 years of it. If we bring in oil from coal or diesel from coal we could get another 66-80 years of it. And that is without exploring the Arctic basin or the Antarctic and that is with large parts of the United States banned from drilling or exploring at this point.
There is so much oil in so many places that most of it isn't defended by large buildups in military forces or arms. Right now the most defended point on the planet is the Korean DMZ, with the Straights of Taiwan, the Golan Heights and the Persian Gulf coming up behind the DMZ. Venezuala, Canada, the North Slope of Alaska, Indonesia, Nigeria, Libya, and Mexico all have large amounts of oil without active military defense. Sure the North Slope is part of the United States and Canada is in NATO, but the US Military and nuclear arms are not in exsistance to defend these locations nor is defending natural resources of NATO used as a justification for budgeting.
I and others have railed on about how self promoting and wrong he is over and over and over, please Powers that Rule/. can we get a Cringely ignoring ability?
Slashdot Mirror
Alright, 15 million over 200 years comes to about 75,000 per year. So how is that "small potatoes" to say, 5.7 million Jews between Jan 1942 and May 1945? Or over 6 million in 4 years in China or 40 million under Mao from 1949-1975?
Since you brought it up, using Amnesty International's estimate of 1.4 million deaths, about 20 percent of the population would have died between 1975 and 1978 in Cambodia.
"The Khmer Rouge regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people, through execution, starvation and forced labor. It is often said to have been one of the most violent regimes of the 20th century -- on par with the regimes of Adolf Hitler and, in the views of many, also Joseph Stalin. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled and time in power, it was probably the most lethal regime of the 20th century."
"In power, the Khmer Rouge carried out a radical program that included isolating the country from foreign influence, closing schools, hospitals and factories, abolishing banking, finance and currency, outlawing all religions, confiscating all private property and relocating people from urban areas to collective farms where forced labor was widespread. The purpose of this policy was to turn Cambodians into "old people" through agricultural labour. It resulted in massive deaths through executions, work exhaustion, illness, and starvation.
The motive for the evacuations was ideologically reflected in the Maoist doctrine which the Khmer Rouge followed, which praised the rural peasants and detested urban city dwellers."
They killed people for knowing how to read, don't call that "small potatoes". All slavery is bad and unjust and all slavery makes human beings into cattle.
The city was founded in 1540 by Spanish conquistadores as San Francisco de Campeche atop the preexisting Maya city of Canpech or Kimpech.
Now we know that the Cortes expedition had some African slaves in it. Here is a question on the subject, while research is done on the many aspects of European Slavery, how much research is done on inter-African slavery or Islamic slavery in regards to Africa? I know we hear a bunch about slavery in the United States, but how about the United Kingdom or French slavery?
Heck, what about trans-tribal slavery in the Americas? While working on a paper about the Cortes expedition there were references in many texts and documents about the Aztecs having slaves, but much more time and space devoted to the few slaves the expedition had with them.
List them and cite some of the "virtually every legal scholar(s) who has spoken out on this matter".
I don't agree with the assessment of Google Earth. There is alot of "non-tourist" regions in higher res photos than just the tourist spots. For example, rural central Oregon isn't exactly a tourist region, yet it's higher res than say Baghdad Iraq.
I'll do a quick, non-tourist tour for crap res or higher res.
Central Oregon - Higher Res
Mountain Home AFB Idaho - Higher Res
North Central Navada - A mix
Buffalo Wyoming - Higher Res
ANWR - medium res
Eagle Butte SD - Low, low res
Pyongyang DPRK - Higher res
Rangoon Burma - medium res
Desert south of Riyadh - higher res
So really, for a free application, it does a good job.
"Civ 4 was so buggy that it was unplayable with ATI cards (ie half the market). Even for nvidia owners there were graphics glitches, random crashes to desktop, memory leaks, and all other manner of nastiness."
Huh? I got Civ 4 the day it came out and it was completely playable with ATI cards (ie half the market). I never had random crashes to desktop or any sort of nastiness with it, pre patch.
That video rocks. There goes alot of theory about how you have to have a notochord or a spine to get higher intelligence.
I saw one of the giant pacific octopus they have at the Seattle Aquarium in 2002. We were in Seattle for a football game, so I was wearing Vikings Purple and Gold, as the Octopus came out and looked us over, it would change to the colors of what it was looking at.
My girlfriend wearing gold and yellow, the critter takes a yellow hue, then purple when it looks at me, then grey and blue as it looks my friend over. Cool stuff.
I've read about them in Aquariums that when they touch someone and the Human pulls back fast, they think it's play time and you get to hold tenticles for a good half hour before the critter thinks play time is over.
Off the invertibrate track, I have a Green Iguana who lives in my living room on a large stainless steel "habitrail" and that Lizard is suprisingly smart for something whose brain stopped developing about 300 MYA. He is easily as smart as a cat or a dog, but without motivation, he was very easily house broken, knows when football games will be on to watch, will indicate is displeasure with something on the radio and tell us to turn the TV on.
From what I understand Octopi are easily smarter than a cat or a dog, so the one in the video might just be trying to play with the lights and thrusters.
I've read this twice today since it was on Fark about 8 hours ago and I have a problem with Mister Oberg's story.
/ docs/rogers-commission/Chapter-3.txt
From Encyclopedia Astronautica - http://www.astronautix.com/flights/sts51l.htm
"At this point in its trajectory, while traveling at a Mach number of 1.92 at an altitude of 46,000 feet, the Challenger was totally enveloped in the explosive burn. The Challenger's reaction control system ruptured and a hypergolic burn of its propellants occurred as it exited the oxygen-hydrogen flames. The reddish brown colors of the hypergolic fuel burn are visible on the edge of the main fireball. The Orbiter, under severe aerodynamic loads, broke into several large sections which emerged from the fireball. Separate sections that can be identified on film include the main engine/tail section with the engines still burning, one wing of the Orbiter, and the forward fuselage trailing a mass of umbilical lines pulled loose from the payload bay.
The Explosion 73 seconds after liftoff claimed crew and vehicle. Cause of explosion was determined to be an O-ring failure in right SRB. Cold weather was a contributing factor. Launch Weight: 268,829 lbs. "
From the Commission's Report
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l
"At 73.124 seconds,. a circumferential white vapor pattern was observed blooming from the side of the External Tank bottom dome. This was the beginning of the structural failure of hydrogen tank that culminated in the entire aft dome dropping away. This released massive amounts of liquid hydrogen from the tank and created a sudden forward thrust of about 2.8 million pounds, pushing the hydrogen tank upward into the intertank structure. At about the same time, the rotating right Solid Rocket Booster impacted the intertank structure and the lower part of the liquid oxygen tank. These structures failed at 73.137 seconds as evidenced by the white vapors appearing in the intertank region.
Within milliseconds there was massive, almost explosive, burning of the hydrogen streaming from the failed tank bottom and liquid oxygen breach in the area of the intertank.
At this point in its trajectory, while traveling at a Mach number of 1.92 at an altitude of 46,000 feet, the Challenger was totally enveloped in the explosive burn. The Challenger's reaction control system ruptured and a hypergolic burn of its propellants occurred as it exited the oxygen-hydrogen flames. The reddish brown colors of the hypergolic fuel burn are visible on the edge of the main fireball. The Orbiter, under severe aerodynamic loads, broke into several large sections which emerged from the fireball. Separate sections that can be identified on film include the main engine/tail section with the engines still burning, one wing of the Orbiter, and the forward fuselage trailing a mass of umbilical lines pulled loose from the payload bay."
From Mister Oberg's story
"The shuttle did not explode in the common definition of that word. There was no shock wave, no detonation, no "bang" -- viewers on the ground just heard the roar of the engines stop as the shuttle's fuel tank tore apart, spilling liquid oxygen and hydrogen which formed a huge fireball at an altitude of 46,000 ft. (Some television documentaries later added the sound of an explosion to these images.) But both solid-fuel strap-on boosters climbed up out of the cloud, still firing and unharmed by any explosion. Challenger itself was torn apart as it was flung free of the other rocket components and turned broadside into the Mach 2 airstream. Individual propellant tanks were seen exploding -- but by then, the spacecraft was already in pieces."
The Shuttle at that time was made up of the Orbiter, a Fuel Tank and two Solid Rocket Boosters, there was an explosion, so I think Mister Oberg is wrong for saying it did not "explode in the common definition of that word". It blew up.
While I've not had anything as bad as Andy's problems, I had a stroke in April of 2005 but I've been able to work through most of the issues and medication helps. I lost the abilty to read for the most part, to write, I can't drive, I lost about 60% of the strength on my left side and about 90% of my fine motor skills and a host of other problems.
Treasure your ability to read, write, drive, think, live, because they can be taken from you in an instant even if you live the healthiest of lives.
I regained the ability to read and write, but now I'm faced with a medicated haze or blinding pain and the chance of a siezure, many others like Andy won't regain some of thier abilities.
No, because a warranted search, right or wrong, at least has some legal precedence and appeal means. Even the most invasive searches under PATRIOT at least have some Judges saying yea or nay and even under the most agressive view of PATRIOT, the citizens of the United States are not being blocked at the same extent the PRC's government will block searches.
The what the DoJ is asking for is not the same as what the PRC will block.
Censorship of information in China will be a messy deal for Google. Communist China is an interesting mix of ancient China, hyper-nationalism, pragmatism, Communism, paranoia, expansion and protection of traditional boundries. So what all might get blocked on Google.cn? Oh hell, anything about anyone but China owning the Spratley's, anything about the Republic of China, Tibet, the Dali Lama who isn't backed by the Chinese, and who knows what territory/expansion issue the Chinese might come up with in the next 5 to 20 years.
They didn't have to go into China, no one is pointing a gun at Google's head, nor will they go away for not going into China. Instead, Google "don't be evil" the Company is aiding and abetting the censorship of 1.3 billion people. Huzzah Google!
What will kill film cameras will be the end of processing chemicals. As makers phase out thier production or the cost rises too high less and less film will be shot.
I bet it's 10 years and then the cost will become too high for 95% of film photographers.
If you take a class on Palestine-Israel, from my experiance having taken three over the years, about 10% of the class are pretty radical. I've been in classes where folks will claim that Israel gave people in the Sinai the plague and that AIDS was invented by the CIA and Mossad to kill Blacks and Arabs.
All it takes is a comment not condeming the Arabs and Palestinians and these people will denounce you and shout down your questions/comments everytime you raise your hand and the professors will do nothing.
I'm the quiet student who asks questions in class sparingly. My papers and exams don't use too many capital letters, and when I say I was graded down, it was a B+ rather than the A I should have gotten, which I was my payment for my focus.
Why was my point of view in the piece? That's easy, write about a ten year period in Israeli history or Palestinian history. I focused on the Arab Israeli Wars from 1967 to 1977, Six Day War, War of Attrition, Ramadan War and Camp David Accords, looking at the military aspects of those three conflicts and the root cause of why Egypt and Israel signed a peace. There was no reason to dock my grade, or anyone else's for presenting a accurate and well researched history of those three wars. If there had been other comments in the paper or corrections, that is one thing, but to be docked for "focus" is wrong. Your comment that it is legitimate comes without any knowledge of the paper, the topic or the content, so you have no idea if it is legitimate or not.
As for an axe to grind, I don't have one, the professor who docked me down for my "focus" is my Thesis Advisor by my choosing.
Now that I think about there have been other times as a Student in Public Higher Ed that I've to tread lightly.
I took a "Capstone" class for my BS which are required for all Undergrads, 6 Quarter Credits and the one I took was on Grant Writing for Non-Profits. In the class, which was Fall Term of 2004, I was one of three males in the class of 18 students. Every day ramping up to the Election we went around the table to talk about what is on our mind. Increasingly it would focus on the upcoming election where we were told by the Professor that the Republicans were no different from the Taliban, that Gays would be imprisoned by a Bush re-election and that all men are rapists deep down and of the three males in the class, two of us would or had raped woman.
Any attempts to shed some light on things, like the fact that all former Presidents talked about God in thier speeches, were denounced as "off-topic" or ignored in our "feel free to speak your mind" round tables.
So to pass the class, people had to suck it up and let the BS flow out for four hours a week, four hours a week I paid for to learn something.
In a couple quick looks over the comments I see alot of hand-wringing and talking about how this is a slippery slope to Nazism and oh nos about the Conservatives beating up the Liberals and how the profs need to be able to speak freely.
What about the student's rights to an education and to speak freely?
I'm a Graduate Student in History, I focus on the Military History in the Middle East since 1918 and the American West from 1865 to the close of the Frontier in 1900. I've been graded down for writing about the Israeli Defense Forces vs. Egypt and Syria rather than focusing on the Palestinian "cause" in the Arab-Israeli Wars. I've been told flat out lies about the Conquistadors and when I tried to cite facts have been shouted down for it.
I'm not paticularly Conversative and I don't spout off in classes but I know that I can't take any class I want from any professor I want because there are some who do grade you down for your outlook on History and the subject matter you write about. In Israeli-Palestinian classes as I said before, I've been docked for looking at Arab-Israeli conflicts and history rather than the "occupation and resistance" even after clearing the subject with the Professors. I've had papers returned with a lower grade with the justifaction of "you pay for your focus". I've had TAs stop speaking to me and refusing to let me ask questions because I told them I lived in Israel, was attacked by Hezbollah and have more of an Israeli viewpoint to the Golan Heights.
Today, in Public Universities I don't see where a Student, at least in History, can study what they want and look at a subject from all sides because many professors either won't let you or punish you for it.
So...Hitler and McCarthy are at the same level of scum?
No, they aren't and pointed at evidence that "Tail-Gunner" Joe was right is not the same as saying Hitler was right.
The fact is that since the McCarthy hearings all we in the United States hear is that he was oh so wrong for pointing at people being the dirty Communists when in fact everyone he pointed at were good people not in bed with the stinky communists, and hell if they were Commies...so what? The Commies did nothing bad but help us fight the real evil...Hitler!
So here we have someone pointed out that declassified American intelligence, not to mention the KGB archives, points out that hey MacCarthy might not have been 100% but on the right track and you Godwin him.
I call bullshit, it's not at all the same as saying some of the Jews the Third Reich killed were bad, it's stating that hey there might have been some point to McCarthy's blathering. So don't go pointing "Godwin" at the poster.
It will I've read, use it's instruments to analyze this, but now I can't find the link for it.
Cool stuff
"The spacecraft carries two computer systems, the Command and Data Handling system and the Guidance and Control processor. Each of the two systems is duplicated for redundancy, making for a total of four computers. The processor used is the Mongoose-V, a 12 MHz radiation-hardened version of the MIPS R3000 CPU.
New Horizons will record scientific instrument data at each encounter and then transmit the data after each encounter is complete. Data storage is done on two low-power solid-state recorders (one primary, one backup) holding up to 8 gigabytes (64 gigabits) each. Communication will be via X band at a rate of 768 bit/s from Pluto to a 70 m Deep Space Network dish (38 Kbit/s at Jupiter).
The craft includes a payload of 430,000 names (on a compact disc), a piece of Scaled Composites SpaceShipOn], and an American flag among other mementos.
Principal investigator Alan Stern confirmed that some ashes of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh were aboard the spacecraft."
The RTGs in question here are not just Plutonium slugs.
y /northern_fleet/incidents/31772.html
Remember there have been accidents with them in the past.
During the three mission accidents that did occur, the RTGs performed as predicted. The Transit 5-BN-3 mission was aborted because of launch vehicle failure. The RTG burned up on reentry as designed with the plutonium dispersed in the upper atmosphere. The RTG design was changed shortly after that to accommodate intact reentry. The next accident was with the Nimbus-B-1 that was aborted shortly after launch by a range safety destruct. The RTG was recovered, with no release of plutonium, and the heat sources were reused in later missions
The failure of the Apollo 13 mission meant that the Lunar Module reentered the atmosphere carrying an RTG and burnt up over Fiji. The RTG itself survived reentry of the Earth's atmosphere intact, plunging into the Tonga trench in the Pacific Ocean. The US Department of Energy has conducted seawater tests and determined that the graphite casing, which was designed to withstand reentry, is stable and no release of plutonium will occur. Subsequent investigations have found no increase in the natural background radiation in the area.
In order to minimise the risk of the radioactive material being released, the fuel is stored in individual modular units with their own heat shielding. They are surrounded by a layer of iridium metal and encased in high-strength graphite blocks. These two materials are corrosion- and heat-resistant. Surrouding the graphic blocks is an aeroshell, designed to protect the entire assembly against the heat of reentering the earth's atmosphere. The plutonium fuel is also stored in a ceramic form that is heat-resistant, minimising the risk of vaporization and aerosolization. The ceramic is also highly insoluble.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTG
http://www.ne.doe.gov/space/space-desc.html
http://www.nuclearspace.com/facts_about_rtg.htm
http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/nav
Nice information about RTG powered lighthouses
Why is it that My Lai is mentioned all the time but the Tet '68 mass killings by the Communists in and around Hue are never mentioned?
y /cg-66.htm
During the months and years that followed the battle, dozens of mass graves were discovered in and around Hue containing nearly 3000 civilians. In some of the mass graves victims were found bound together; some appeared tortured; others were even reported to have appeared buried alive. Estimates vary on the number executed, with a low of a couple hundred to a high of several thousand. Commonly villiage leaders who had not shown satisfactory Communist leanings during the time the Republic of South Vietnam ruled the area were murdered.
The NLF set up provisional authorities shortly after capturing Hue, and was charged with removing the existing government administration from power within the city and replacing it with a revolutionary administration. Working from lists of "cruel tyrants and reactionary elements" previously developed by VC intelligence officers, many people were to be rounded up following the initial hours of the attack. These included South Vietnamese soldiers, civil servants, political party members, local religious leaders, American civilians and other foreigners. These individuals, according to VC documents captured during and after the siege, were to be taken out of the city and held and punished for their "crimes against the Vietnamese people".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Hue
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/nav
At My Lai between 350 and 510 civilians were killed, so the Hue/Tet killings were much bloodier and more orchestrated, so why is My Lai always brought up when the Communists killed more?
I don't think that a drug like this will be used to facilitate war crimes because a Military needs discipline and rape/murder goes against discipline. An Army is a mob and shows some mob behaviors which are tempered in a military unit by training, routine and dispiline, the US military, NATO, Russian, Israeli and those militaries which closely follow these doctrines will not allow a drug which breaks down the discipline to be dispensed.
Except for the fact that there is alot of oil around the world. Lots and lots. If we just count the easy to get stuff, right now we are looking at 45-60 years of it. If we bring in the Shale Oil and harder to extract tar sands, another 90-180 years of it. If we bring in oil from coal or diesel from coal we could get another 66-80 years of it. And that is without exploring the Arctic basin or the Antarctic and that is with large parts of the United States banned from drilling or exploring at this point.
There is so much oil in so many places that most of it isn't defended by large buildups in military forces or arms. Right now the most defended point on the planet is the Korean DMZ, with the Straights of Taiwan, the Golan Heights and the Persian Gulf coming up behind the DMZ. Venezuala, Canada, the North Slope of Alaska, Indonesia, Nigeria, Libya, and Mexico all have large amounts of oil without active military defense. Sure the North Slope is part of the United States and Canada is in NATO, but the US Military and nuclear arms are not in exsistance to defend these locations nor is defending natural resources of NATO used as a justification for budgeting.
There have been a number of landers on Venus
http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm
So that we can ignore them?
/. can we get a Cringely ignoring ability?
I and others have railed on about how self promoting and wrong he is over and over and over, please Powers that Rule
I stopped playing because of the server browser and it's a little depressing to think it's still broke. Ugh.