I really don't see any reference in the article to consideration of the possibility that these meteors might be terrestrial in origin - blasted into space from Earth's crust by a large impactor, and eventually re-entering, to be discovered and found bearing remnants of terrestrial bacteria.
Nothing in the paper is inconsistent with that hypothesis. All of the attention in the article devoted to possible sources in comets, asteroids, Jovian moons, and the Kuiper Belt, but no consideration given to the closest source of organic materials - the earth itself.
That was only the first part. This was the second, involving 222 High School students:
"The second experiment took the lab findings to the field to test. Two hundred and twenty-two high school students in Chesterland, Ohio were assigned material in easy and difficult fonts across subjects and grades on a randomized basis. The classes included history, English, physics, and chemistry, and ran the gamut of difficulty from normal to honors to AP courses. The measure was normal classroom tests. The findings were similar to the Princeton study: kids reading material in hard to read fonts did better on regular classroom assessment tests than did their randomly selected counterparts reading the same material in easy to read fonts."
A summary of the study is here: http://wws.princeton.edu/news/DOppenheimer_Font/DOppenheimer_DisfluencySummary.pdf
Yet, the human eye has limits its own limits. Beyond a certain display pixel density, the additional detail is not perceivable by the human and therefore cannot result in a performance improvement.
And legibility is not the same as retention. If you're designing a display for an aircraft, for example, that must convey a limited amount of information clearly and quickly, a highly legible display is essential.
If you are presenting information for storage and later recall, it makes sense that the more your brain is engaged in the processing of the information, the more retention you will exhibit.
Yet the news report linked in the post is largely a continuous video loop of a Predator UAV in flight, while, as you note correctly, the Miami-Dade PD has acquired a Honeywell T-Hawk, a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) with a 14 lb dry weight. Completely different vehicles from what is suggested by the news story.
These MAVs have been proven to be helpful for small-unit tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan, and may prove effective in SWAT operations. This is not a pervasive surveillance technology, it is a tactical aid.
The Miami-Dade PD already operates helicopters with surveillance capability, as do most large police departments.
The main news here is the use of a MAV by a Police Department. It's my belief that the FAA will take a hands off approach, as this is much more akin to a hobbyist's Radio-Controlled helicopter than a Predator UAV. This MAV will not mix with air traffic. It may be "capable" of flights to 10,000 feet, but I am sure its 1-lb camera system is pretty useless at that altitude above ground level. That spec is probably in there to allow it to be used in high-density altitude locations such as mountainous or high desert areas. This is meant to provide an aerial view of rooftops, walled compounds and areas not easily accessible from the ground.
In some ways I blame the Miami-Dade PD for not being very clear in their public relations, to speak to the press and not make clear that this tech cannot be mistaken for a Predator-type UAV.
Currently this sort of research is done on Plum Island (http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=19-40-00-00) which is conveniently separated from everything else by a nice long bridge.
Although Long Island is separated from the continental US by a bridge, Plum Island has no bridge at all, and is served by a ferry from Long Island.
My WRT54 needed a reboot about once a day - I had noticed that the outages were coming after my oil burner kicked on. The router and the oil burner were on the same circuit (old house).
I ran a new dedicated circuit straight from the electric panel box right to the router. It's the only device on that circuit. No more reboots.
Yeah, I work in Law Enforcement. In true Slashdot fashion, I read the headline and formed an opinion. Drug prisoners? Okay, if it keeps them from offing themselves. Being interested, I read further... apoptosis? Damn, I didn't realize there was a word for it. Unwanted cell suicide? Aren't they all? Well, most of them anyway. I really need to start reading the articles.
Colder air is denser, everything else being equal.
However, "moist" or "humid" air, under the same conditions, is less dense.
A hypothetical cubic foot of any gas at the same temperature and pressure always has the same number of molecules no matter what gas is in the container
In humid air, molecules of water vapor (molecular weight 18) replace molecules of nitrogen (MW 28) and Oxygen (MW 32). So, replacing nitrogen and oxygen with water vapor decreases the weight of the air in the cubic foot; that is, it's density decreases.
In aircraft, high humidity can reduce engine, prop, turbine, and lifting surface efficiency and performance.
NASA's newly appointed Administrator Michael Brown announced that 240,000 volunteers had applied for permanent assignment to the newly constructed Moonbase NO. NASA's prime contractor Halliburton has been awarded an open-ended construction and integration contract.
I for one welcome our new private sector overlords.
The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed tells the fascinating story of the dream of a completely new aircraft, a hybrid of the airplane and the rigid airship--huge, wingless, moving slowly through the lower sky. It flies aerodynamically. It floats aerostatically. It carries bridges, buildings, fleets of trucks. It is a flying warehouse. It eliminates the need for roads, railroads, prepared harbors. Or so goes the dream. With an arching back and a deep belly, it looks like a tremendous pumpkin seed.
1.8 million is peanuts compared to the NASA aeronautics research budget of US$850 million per year. However, NASA's aeronautics programs (non-space) are taking a beating in the funding competition with Moon/Mars programs. I know there's a lot of interest and public support for the flashy and expensive space hardware, but it's the core aeronautics research that has a great impact on our mobility around the planet, reducing energy consumption, and reducing environmental impacts of atmospheric flight. I would like to see an Apollo-like program in aeronautics coupled with a continued space presence.
The Europeans are hoping to fund the system by licensing fees on the receivers, and fees for access to high-reliability positioning information for critical applications such as aviation.
The basic service will be free and comparable to GPS in accuracy and reliability.
I have my doubts about their business model. They are essentially trying to compete with a totally free service that already offers high reliablility and is increasing in accuracy with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) and LAAS (Local Area Augmentation System) enhancemnts to the GPS system.
Will you buy a GPS receiver with no licensing fee or a Galileo receiver that does the same thing for more money?
In fact, if Galileo allows basic receivers to be produced license free, GPS manufacturers can tap into the Galileo signal (frequencies & signals are supposed to be compatible) to further increase GPS accuracy, at no cost.
I guess I don't mind watching the French et al blow lots of cash enroute to having their asses kicked in the marketplace. Let 'em have at it...
OK, maybe the oil in the Endust will increase the dust-collection efficiency of the filter, like a K&N filtercharger on an automobile: http://www.knfilters.com/facts.htm
But, what about the other components in that aerosol can? Propane, butane, hydrocarbon solvent, METHYL CHLOROFORM (1,1,1-TRICHLOROEHANE). (From the MSDS) http://www.herc.org/library/msds/endust.htm
"Methyl chloroform is used as a solvent and in many consumer products. Effects reported in humans due to acute (short-term) inhalation exposure to methyl chloroform include hypotension, mild hepatic effects, and central nervous system (CNS) depression. Cardiac arrhythmia and respiratory arrest may result from the depression of the CNS. Symptoms of acute inhalation exposure include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of consciousness, and decreased blood pressure in humans."
Actually, let's coin the term "Hoaxware," or perhaps more accurately, "Delusionware."
Read the Stavatti website:
http://www.stavatti.com/contact.html
That's a real impressive "Registered Office, design center and present headquarters." I bet they store the Polonium samples in the hayloft. Or maybe in that dumpster out front. There's "security through obscurity" for ya.
The aircraft in the foreground are parked at passenger gates, ditto for the aircraft in the background. There is only one aircraft in motion on the ramp/taxiway, and that's the aircraft proceeding from left to right in the center.
The apparent jumble of aircraft in the photograph is an effect of the telephoto lens used to capture the image.
I'll bet North Korea would love to get a gander at that Saturn V data. Sure, it might be a little overkill, but scaled down it would make a bitchin' ICBM.
Slashdot Mirror
In some communities in the US where the copper infrastructure was damaged by Superstorm Sandy, Verizon has sought to abandon copper and replace it with VoiceLink, a cell-based solution.
PHASE 1:
Collect the patents... ALL the patents...
PHASE 2:
?
PHASE 3:
Profit.
I really don't see any reference in the article to consideration of the possibility that these meteors might be terrestrial in origin - blasted into space from Earth's crust by a large impactor, and eventually re-entering, to be discovered and found bearing remnants of terrestrial bacteria.
Nothing in the paper is inconsistent with that hypothesis. All of the attention in the article devoted to possible sources in comets, asteroids, Jovian moons, and the Kuiper Belt, but no consideration given to the closest source of organic materials - the earth itself.
Sounds like a severe case of confirmation bias...
That was only the first part. This was the second, involving 222 High School students:
"The second experiment took the lab findings to the field to test. Two hundred and twenty-two high school students in Chesterland, Ohio were assigned material in easy and difficult fonts across subjects and grades on a randomized basis. The classes included history, English, physics, and chemistry, and ran the gamut of difficulty from normal to honors to AP courses. The measure was normal classroom tests. The findings were similar to the Princeton study: kids reading material in hard to read fonts did better on regular classroom assessment tests than did their randomly selected counterparts reading the same material in easy to read fonts."
A summary of the study is here: http://wws.princeton.edu/news/DOppenheimer_Font/DOppenheimer_DisfluencySummary.pdf
Yet, the human eye has limits its own limits. Beyond a certain display pixel density, the additional detail is not perceivable by the human and therefore cannot result in a performance improvement.
And legibility is not the same as retention. If you're designing a display for an aircraft, for example, that must convey a limited amount of information clearly and quickly, a highly legible display is essential.
If you are presenting information for storage and later recall, it makes sense that the more your brain is engaged in the processing of the information, the more retention you will exhibit.
Here is a link to the summary of the research:
http://wws.princeton.edu/news/DOppenheimer_Font/DOppenheimer_DisfluencySummary.pdf
Yet the news report linked in the post is largely a continuous video loop of a Predator UAV in flight, while, as you note correctly, the Miami-Dade PD has acquired a Honeywell T-Hawk, a Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) with a 14 lb dry weight. Completely different vehicles from what is suggested by the news story.
These MAVs have been proven to be helpful for small-unit tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan, and may prove effective in SWAT operations. This is not a pervasive surveillance technology, it is a tactical aid.
The Miami-Dade PD already operates helicopters with surveillance capability, as do most large police departments.
The main news here is the use of a MAV by a Police Department. It's my belief that the FAA will take a hands off approach, as this is much more akin to a hobbyist's Radio-Controlled helicopter than a Predator UAV. This MAV will not mix with air traffic. It may be "capable" of flights to 10,000 feet, but I am sure its 1-lb camera system is pretty useless at that altitude above ground level. That spec is probably in there to allow it to be used in high-density altitude locations such as mountainous or high desert areas. This is meant to provide an aerial view of rooftops, walled compounds and areas not easily accessible from the ground.
In some ways I blame the Miami-Dade PD for not being very clear in their public relations, to speak to the press and not make clear that this tech cannot be mistaken for a Predator-type UAV.
Currently this sort of research is done on Plum Island (http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=19-40-00-00) which is conveniently separated from everything else by a nice long bridge.
Although Long Island is separated from the continental US by a bridge, Plum Island has no bridge at all, and is served by a ferry from Long Island.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=plum+island,+ny&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=41.178719,-72.188673&spn=0.033657,0.06978&t=h&z=14&iwloc=A
There's also an argument to be made that a facility on an island is easier to secure.
My WRT54 needed a reboot about once a day - I had noticed that the outages were coming after my oil burner kicked on. The router and the oil burner were on the same circuit (old house).
I ran a new dedicated circuit straight from the electric panel box right to the router. It's the only device on that circuit. No more reboots.
UPS would probably work as well.
It cannot. But will it?
Yeah, I work in Law Enforcement. In true Slashdot fashion, I read the headline and formed an opinion. Drug prisoners? Okay, if it keeps them from offing themselves. Being interested, I read further... apoptosis? Damn, I didn't realize there was a word for it. Unwanted cell suicide? Aren't they all? Well, most of them anyway. I really need to start reading the articles.
Advantages of Ramen Spectroscopy:
- Fast and convenient to prepare.
- Great taste and convenience.
- Versatile.
- Consistent high quality, providing excellent value.
I'll bet this is even funnier to an Englishman than to an American.
Nooo!
He clearly said "meta naval gazing."
So he was talking about deep contemplation of the act of taking the afternoon off and watching the maneuvers off the shore of Lake Michigan.
C'mon. Cut him a break.
1. Massive enough that its gravity will prevent future human occupants from reaching escape velocity with a brisk jump.
2. In orbit around a star, so that it can be easily located by interstellar travellers. A body adrift in the universe makes for a poor address.
3. Some form of aesthetic beauty. Why bother calling it a planet if you don't want to either a) live there, or b) look at it.
4. A cool name. Lila qualifies (Go Mike!), as does Clare, Krypton, and Earth. Uranus is marginal, especially when pronounce "your uh nuss" Come on.
5. Exploitable resources. We're human, after all.
Well, you're half right...
Colder air is denser, everything else being equal.
However, "moist" or "humid" air, under the same conditions, is less dense.
A hypothetical cubic foot of any gas at the same temperature and pressure always has the same number of molecules no matter what gas is in the container
In humid air, molecules of water vapor (molecular weight 18) replace molecules of nitrogen (MW 28) and Oxygen (MW 32). So, replacing nitrogen and oxygen with water vapor decreases the weight of the air in the cubic foot; that is, it's density decreases.
In aircraft, high humidity can reduce engine, prop, turbine, and lifting surface efficiency and performance.
NASA's newly appointed Administrator Michael Brown announced that 240,000 volunteers had applied for permanent assignment to the newly constructed Moonbase NO. NASA's prime contractor Halliburton has been awarded an open-ended construction and integration contract.
I for one welcome our new private sector overlords.
1.8 million is peanuts compared to the NASA aeronautics research budget of US$850 million per year. However, NASA's aeronautics programs (non-space) are taking a beating in the funding competition with Moon/Mars programs. I know there's a lot of interest and public support for the flashy and expensive space hardware, but it's the core aeronautics research that has a great impact on our mobility around the planet, reducing energy consumption, and reducing environmental impacts of atmospheric flight. I would like to see an Apollo-like program in aeronautics coupled with a continued space presence.
The Europeans are hoping to fund the system by licensing fees on the receivers, and fees for access to high-reliability positioning information for critical applications such as aviation.
The basic service will be free and comparable to GPS in accuracy and reliability.
I have my doubts about their business model. They are essentially trying to compete with a totally free service that already offers high reliablility and is increasing in accuracy with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) and LAAS (Local Area Augmentation System) enhancemnts to the GPS system.
Will you buy a GPS receiver with no licensing fee or a Galileo receiver that does the same thing for more money?
In fact, if Galileo allows basic receivers to be produced license free, GPS manufacturers can tap into the Galileo signal (frequencies & signals are supposed to be compatible) to further increase GPS accuracy, at no cost.
I guess I don't mind watching the French et al blow lots of cash enroute to having their asses kicked in the marketplace. Let 'em have at it...
OK, maybe the oil in the Endust will increase the dust-collection efficiency of the filter, like a K&N filtercharger on an automobile: http://www.knfilters.com/facts.htm
m
But, what about the other components in that aerosol can? Propane, butane, hydrocarbon solvent, METHYL CHLOROFORM (1,1,1-TRICHLOROEHANE). (From the MSDS)
http://www.herc.org/library/msds/endust.ht
"Methyl chloroform is used as a solvent and in many consumer products. Effects reported in humans due to acute (short-term) inhalation exposure to methyl chloroform include hypotension, mild hepatic effects, and central nervous system (CNS) depression. Cardiac arrhythmia and respiratory arrest may result from the depression of the CNS. Symptoms of acute inhalation exposure include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of consciousness, and decreased blood pressure in humans."
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/trichlor.html
Actually, let's coin the term "Hoaxware," or perhaps more accurately, "Delusionware."
Read the Stavatti website:
http://www.stavatti.com/contact.html
That's a real impressive "Registered Office, design center and present headquarters." I bet they store the Polonium samples in the hayloft. Or maybe in that dumpster out front. There's "security through obscurity" for ya.
That's definitely NOT photoshopped.
The aircraft in the foreground are parked at passenger gates, ditto for the aircraft in the background. There is only one aircraft in motion on the ramp/taxiway, and that's the aircraft proceeding from left to right in the center.
The apparent jumble of aircraft in the photograph is an effect of the telephoto lens used to capture the image.
I'll bet North Korea would love to get a gander at that Saturn V data. Sure, it might be a little overkill, but scaled down it would make a bitchin' ICBM.
The USPS is only employing this technology in very specific instances - such as mail bound for Capitol Hill.
Why not email your bits instead?