Because Illinois is a northerly state... does Pluto ever actually pass "overhead"? Ever?
Yes.
Pluto's orbital inclination to the sun is about 11 degrees at maximum. The latitude of Illinois is much higher than that, at about 36 degrees. So Pluto may never pass through their air space, even if the borders of Illinois are extended upwards to infinity.
You are thinking about the inclination relative to the sun's equator - however, Pluto's orbital inclination to the Earth's plane is more than that: A bit over 17 degrees.
Earth's own axis is tilted 23.5 degrees, and as there's no obvious integer resonance between their orbital periods, Pluto will at some time be visible overhead at as
high as +/- ~40.5 degrees (17+23.5) - which is surprisingly close to Chicago's latitude of ~41 degrees. So either they got lucky, or someone actually thought about that.
However, Pluto right now is at 17.5 degrees south, so it will never be in zenith north of 6 degrees north (23.5-17.5) or - very roughly - Panama. And due to Pluto's loooooong orbital period of
about 250 Earth years, this will not change significantly for a very long time.
On an unrelated note: WhyTF is slashdot eating my degree signs - and not allowing the ampersand HTML entity?
shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind
Yeah, in its current form, that prize isn't at all what Nobel intended it to be: A prize to help younger, still
aspiring scientist with their work. They reeeeealy stretch the term "preceding year" when awarding the prize
for discoveries made multiple decades in the past.
Sure, groundbreaking discoveries can take some time to be recognised as such, and I symathise with the committee,
but this has really become quite ridiculous.
What interests me is if this explosion had occurred anywhere in the milky way galaxy and the energy was directed at earth, would we still be here discussing the matter?
Depends. Is slashdot accessible from the afterlife?
Yup, 307 StGB (the German penal code)
("to cause an explosion using nuclear energy")
The best part: While detonating a nuke on purpose is very much illegal and gets
you thrown in jail for at least five years (best case), in case of negligence,
you can get away with a maximum of three years, or a fine.
I stumbled across a little French cartoon on the web called Minuscule. It is a bunch of 5 minute shorts of silly anthropomorphic 3D rendered insects, blended with real backgrounds. Superb job very entertaining. Despite being done in France, there's no speech so no translation is necessary. I figured this is the sort of thing that would just delight my mother. Thus I set about buying it. [...] Then the first time anything in English comes up, it's a notice that says "Sorry, we aren't allowed to sell to that country."
I can buy stuff at amazon.com,.ca and even.co.jp with a european amazon account.
I don't know if it works the other way around as well, but it would seriously surpise me if not.
Ever stay at a hotel in Europe? You will have to fill in your name, passport/ID card number, home address, etc on the registration card.
Please stop using "Europe" as a name for some sort of country with identical laws everywhere. It isn't.
True, there are european countries that have laws requiring identification in hotels. But from recent
experience I can tell you that e.g. neither Denmark, Sweden nor Norway (the former two even are EU members) do
have them. I booked my hotels by phone, could've used any arbitrary name (in fact, a couple of places I stayed at
misspelled it - some quite badly), and in some places even payed cash. No problem at all.
[The A380] won't fit at most airports due to its dimensions. I suspect that would be too limiting for Air Force One.
This is wrong. The A380 was specifically designed to fit into the standard 80mx80m box.
So it will fit every airport that can accept a 747.
Its weight can be a problem though, some taxiways are not designed for that high a load.
Most major airports have since long been upgraded however, and a lot are still following.
And if they are used to change the emphasis in a phrase, they often are very useful too. They can even allow for improved clarity.
So just stop to stupidly impose latin grammar rules and conventions on another language.
Armed with that, criminals can easily charge those accounts and EVERYONE in Germany MUST now check their accounts at least every 6 weeks and issue reverse-charges if they discovered fraudulent activity.
No. Charges without an "Einzugsermächtigung" (a permission by the account holder to the charging entity to do such charges)
can be reversed indefinitely. Some banks like to hide this fact from their customers, but every single case that went
to court was won by the customer, and most of the time it is enough to insist on that fact.
??? WTF? A bank allows ANYONE to debit from your account WITHOUT any authorisation?
No. At least not in theory. The person/corporation/entity charging yout account has to get your permission
to do that first (called "Einzugsermächtigung"). Then, everyone wanting to do such charging has to get it approved
with their bank, which is not completely automatic - non-commercial entities need a very good reason to be
allowed to do that.
However, the existence of such an "Einzugsermächtigung" is not checked by the banks, so if you claim to have one, the default is
to believe you. But this also means that if such a charge happens without one, it can be reversed indefinitely. Banks like to
tell teir custemers that there is a six week limit on this, but this is only valid for charge reversals on charges that were done by
someone actually having the account holder's permission.
Wow, that's so behind. In Norway, there's no way to charge an account without full ID.
Yes there is. I've been quite scared to learn that it is possible to charge my account using my Maestro card without its PIN code in Norway. I've been asked "Do you have a PIN code for that card?" regularly when
paying with it all over Norway - apparently, it is quite common for norwegians to have cards without them. In
such a case, the store clerk is supposed to check the ID. Guess how good or how reliably this works, especially
with foreign IDs...
A wire transfer typically costs $25 outgoing and $12 incoming and you need to know the receiver's bank account # & routing number. I seriously doubt that it is used that much by most people.
In Germany, in the majority of cases wire transfers are free. This is even so for most of the transfers within the EU.
You will have a hard time to find anyone in Germany who even knows how to fill out a check, let alone have one available.
Most retailers probably won't even know what to do with it any more.
21 million is three in four existing German bank accounts.
Certainly not. Germany has over 80 million inhabitants, and it is very common even for
"ordinary people" to have more than one account. And that's not counting all the corporate accounts,
small businesses with accounts at every local bank, etc.
Of course, this doesn't mean there isn't a problem. It is estimated that the data of more than 80% of
german bank accounts can be pruchased on the black market. But this would be way over a hundred million accounts.
Slashdot Mirror
Meh, make that 181 microseconds. Forgot the "eight".
eight 13,000ns N-Class motors and a 77,000ns P-Class motor
So that's a 90-microsecond array?
(They mean Ns - yes, case matters with physical units...)
Just because it is so popular people hate it. It's like people hating on pop stars, Windows, and Kraft Parmesan cheese.
Not at all. My dislike of Kraft "Parmesan" cheese has nothing to do with its popularity.
Actual working link to NASA's poll page (the one in the summary isn't one):
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/name_ISS/index.html
Because Illinois is a northerly state... does Pluto ever actually pass "overhead"? Ever?
Yes.
Pluto's orbital inclination to the sun is about 11 degrees at maximum. The latitude of Illinois is much higher than that, at about 36 degrees. So Pluto may never pass through their air space, even if the borders of Illinois are extended upwards to infinity.
You are thinking about the inclination relative to the sun's equator - however, Pluto's orbital inclination to the Earth's plane is more than that: A bit over 17 degrees.
Earth's own axis is tilted 23.5 degrees, and as there's no obvious integer resonance between their orbital periods, Pluto will at some time be visible overhead at as
high as +/- ~40.5 degrees (17+23.5) - which is surprisingly close to Chicago's latitude of ~41 degrees. So either they got lucky, or someone actually thought about that.
However, Pluto right now is at 17.5 degrees south, so it will never be in zenith north of 6 degrees north (23.5-17.5) or - very roughly - Panama. And due to Pluto's loooooong orbital period of
about 250 Earth years, this will not change significantly for a very long time.
On an unrelated note: WhyTF is slashdot eating my degree signs - and not allowing the ampersand HTML entity?
shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind
Yeah, in its current form, that prize isn't at all what Nobel intended it to be: A prize to help younger, still
aspiring scientist with their work. They reeeeealy stretch the term "preceding year" when awarding the prize
for discoveries made multiple decades in the past.
Sure, groundbreaking discoveries can take some time to be recognised as such, and I symathise with the committee,
but this has really become quite ridiculous.
What interests me is if this explosion had occurred anywhere in the milky way galaxy and the energy was directed at earth, would we still be here discussing the matter?
Depends. Is slashdot accessible from the afterlife?
And the largest bomb ever exploded is 5x10^8 tons of TNT.
Not quite. You are thinking of the sowjet "Tsar Bomba" - with an estimated
blast of about 50Mt TNT-equivalent. That would be 50e6, or 5*10^7.
This factor of ten of yours of course doesn't change the fact that the amounts of energy involved in cosmic
explosions are mindbogglingly huge.
...all the countries with high per-capita television ownership also have low birth rates.
Yes, and the shrinking of stork populations has even accelerated this alarming decline.
Ok, I can crack a WEP network in under 30 minutes, does that make me qualified?
No. Everything above 5 minutes - on weak netbook hardware - proves that you are not. ;-)
Except for the colonel of course, he always seems to get more than the normal process.
That's because some processes are more equal than others.
Eight bits good. Two bits bad.
What' is this then ?
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads2.php
Source Code ?
I have not compiled it [...]
I have. It works.
It's also a law in Germany, I think...
Yup, 307 StGB (the German penal code)
("to cause an explosion using nuclear energy")
The best part: While detonating a nuke on purpose is very much illegal and gets
you thrown in jail for at least five years (best case), in case of negligence,
you can get away with a maximum of three years, or a fine.
How do you negligently explode a nuke?
I stumbled across a little French cartoon on the web called Minuscule. It is a bunch of 5 minute shorts of silly anthropomorphic 3D rendered insects, blended with real backgrounds. Superb job very entertaining. Despite being done in France, there's no speech so no translation is necessary. I figured this is the sort of thing that would just delight my mother. Thus I set about buying it. [...] Then the first time anything in English comes up, it's a notice that says "Sorry, we aren't allowed to sell to that country."
You could try amazon.fr:
.ca and even .co.jp with a european amazon account.
:-)
http://www.amazon.fr/Minuscule-collector-DVD-Thomas-Szabo/dp/B000UX663W/
I can buy stuff at amazon.com,
I don't know if it works the other way around as well, but it would seriously surpise me if not.
(And yes, that DVD box is well worth if
The house is less than 2 years old so it should be decently insulated though the windows are only single paned.
So it's not.
Ever stay at a hotel in Europe? You will have to fill in your name, passport/ID card number, home address, etc on the registration card.
Please stop using "Europe" as a name for some sort of country with identical laws everywhere. It isn't.
True, there are european countries that have laws requiring identification in hotels. But from recent
experience I can tell you that e.g. neither Denmark, Sweden nor Norway (the former two even are EU members) do
have them. I booked my hotels by phone, could've used any arbitrary name (in fact, a couple of places I stayed at
misspelled it - some quite badly), and in some places even payed cash. No problem at all.
[The A380] won't fit at most airports due to its dimensions. I suspect that would be too limiting for Air Force One.
This is wrong. The A380 was specifically designed to fit into the standard 80mx80m box.
So it will fit every airport that can accept a 747.
Its weight can be a problem though, some taxiways are not designed for that high a load.
Most major airports have since long been upgraded however, and a lot are still following.
So, no, the size is no problem.
Re those "splitinfinitive" taggers: Split infinitives are perfectly legal in English.
Yes, in American English as well.
And if they are used to change the emphasis in a phrase, they often are very useful too. They can even allow for improved clarity.
So just stop to stupidly impose latin grammar rules and conventions on another language.
By the way: Ending sentences with prepositions is generally OK as well.
Stupidly uppercasing everything in a headline will regularly backfire if scientific units are used.
What's meant here is nanometer, not Newtonmeter - which, by the way, is equal to Joule.
And now here I am, unable to think of a good pun about a 32 Joule chip...
Maybe some of you don't participate in the art form known as vacuuming, but the power cord is a pain in the ass.
You are supposed to plug it in a power outlet...
Armed with that, criminals can easily charge those accounts and EVERYONE in Germany MUST now check their accounts at least every 6 weeks and issue reverse-charges if they discovered fraudulent activity.
No. Charges without an "Einzugsermächtigung" (a permission by the account holder to the charging entity to do such charges)
can be reversed indefinitely. Some banks like to hide this fact from their customers, but every single case that went
to court was won by the customer, and most of the time it is enough to insist on that fact.
??? WTF? A bank allows ANYONE to debit from your account WITHOUT any authorisation?
No. At least not in theory. The person/corporation/entity charging yout account has to get your permission
to do that first (called "Einzugsermächtigung"). Then, everyone wanting to do such charging has to get it approved
with their bank, which is not completely automatic - non-commercial entities need a very good reason to be
allowed to do that.
However, the existence of such an "Einzugsermächtigung" is not checked by the banks, so if you claim to have one, the default is
to believe you. But this also means that if such a charge happens without one, it can be reversed indefinitely. Banks like to
tell teir custemers that there is a six week limit on this, but this is only valid for charge reversals on charges that were done by
someone actually having the account holder's permission.
The whole system works surprisingly well.
Wow, that's so behind. In Norway, there's no way to charge an account without full ID.
Yes there is. I've been quite scared to learn that it is possible to charge my account using my Maestro card
without its PIN code in Norway. I've been asked "Do you have a PIN code for that card?" regularly when
paying with it all over Norway - apparently, it is quite common for norwegians to have cards without them. In
such a case, the store clerk is supposed to check the ID. Guess how good or how reliably this works, especially
with foreign IDs...
A wire transfer typically costs $25 outgoing and $12 incoming and you need to know the receiver's bank account # & routing number. I seriously doubt that it is used that much by most people.
In Germany, in the majority of cases wire transfers are free. This is even so for most of the transfers within the EU.
You will have a hard time to find anyone in Germany who even knows how to fill out a check, let alone have one available.
Most retailers probably won't even know what to do with it any more.
21 million is three in four existing German bank accounts.
Certainly not. Germany has over 80 million inhabitants, and it is very common even for
"ordinary people" to have more than one account. And that's not counting all the corporate accounts,
small businesses with accounts at every local bank, etc.
Of course, this doesn't mean there isn't a problem. It is estimated that the data of more than 80% of
german bank accounts can be pruchased on the black market. But this would be way over a hundred million accounts.