But if you drop them, won't they just remain in orbit?
Yes, absolutely. It is impossible to just "drop" something on earth from
a stable orbit - remember: You are already constantly falling.
Or will a tiny push be enough to get them down to earth?
I'd expect them to be rocket propelled rods to a certain extent.
Targetting will be a bitch though: You'd have to do a more or less controlled
reentry (tip forward, or the earodynamic breaking would mess with your speed) on
an arced trajectory, and very precisely hold on to your trajectory - even very
minor errors will make the rod completely miss the target.
The whole thing sounds interesting as an idea, but gets complicated very quickly as you
start thinking about an implementation.
People are suffering and all you guys can think of is "youtube block", "human rights", and so on.
C'mon, guys, people are dying there and please, have a heart, wilya ??
You mean as opposed to those heartless, brutal human rights activists?
Just because people are talking about various (un)related issues doesn't mean they don't care, you know.
And this was far from being unrelated.
TFA: The near absence of gravity (microgravity)...
JFTR: At 400km above ground (the ISS's orbit), the gravitational acceleration
the Earth exerts is still about 88% of the acceleration on the ground.
It is a very common misconception that gravity somehow instantly vanishes as you
arrive in space. It isn't so - in fact, gravity is crucial for that weightlessness in orbit.
I think that the engine that experienced a brief exposure to supersonic flow got a sudden 'decrease'
in engine thrust, and the pilots threw their heads onto the side that was opposite to the malfunctioning
engine. Can an actual areo engineer confirm my theory?
IANAAE;-) - but I just recently read Ben Rich's book about his time at Lokheed's Skunk Works
(he ended up managing the place) - you are basically right, the affected engine's thrust decreased dramatically.
This issue was internally called an "unstart" of the engine. It wasn't however a simple "accidental thrust
vectoring": The pilots would be thrown all over the cockpit, often unable to tell which engine was affected.
During test flights, the pilot would sometimes guess wrong and switch off the good engine, getting himself in
some pretty uncomfortable situations.
The problem was never solved for good. A workaround was implemented as a firmware upgrade (seriously!) and did
do the trick: If an engine was detected to have "unstarted", the electronics would do the same to the other engine -
thereby retaining thrust symmetry - and then ramping both engines up again together.
Pilots mostly didn't even notice an unstart had happened from there on.
That's mostly a legend, remaining from the times of small, very fast rotating wind wheels.
Nowadays, this isn't an issue any more: The wheels are much higher (less birds) and slower
(birds can react to and avoid them). I've been to a couple of recent generation generators,
and have even climbed one (great view) - there wasn't a single dead bird lying around in the
vicinity. Yes, I looked for them.
What a great concept - for trackers: You individually register and have
to stay identifiable during all your browsing so trackers know it is you.
You allow them to track you so they stop tracking you.
OK, someone has to lose his geek card here. Misspelling the name of one of the
Netscape cofounders is pretty high on the "how to look like an idiot on/." list.
now, does all that fancy mathematics and statements about the repetition cycle of days include the Leap Year's Lead Day, as well as the fact that it didn't exist the last time this cycle started?
Yes, the formula by Gauß does. That's one of the reasons the mathematics have to be so fancy.
The vast majority of customers for blu-ray technology won't give a rats arse about this. I certainly don't
Well, I do. Let me tell you why:
I don't own a TV. I *do* however own a computer with a WUXGA display. In its current
config, my computer would not be "MAFIAA certified" to play BD discs, even if I hab a BD drive.
I want to be able to play the content on my computer.
With the OS of my choice. With a display of my choice. Without this HDCP crap.
I own a bunch of DVDs because deCSS has become ubiquitous today, and nearly every
computer with a DVD drive can play them, without any platform or software dependencies.
I'm waiting for the same to happen for BD - until then, no money from me.
Please make it happen soon, HD video looks great.
Yeah, because we all know this evil DVD monopoly drove DVD player
prices to insane heights...
Seriously, this is basic supply and demand at work (more would-'ve-bought HD-DVD
buyers now go for BluRay) and will certainly improve over a probably rather short time.
There's a special filter subscription for Adblock Plus to kill a lot of that tracking
stuff (webbugs, tracking scripts, etc.), the "ABP Tracking Filter" (see #3 on the left).
This of course doesn't make you anonymous online at all, but it helps against the worst
offenders and keeps your data out of their DBs.
You joke, but Saturn's (Cronus's) wife in mythology was named Rhea. A bit of a coincidence that.
Not really, considering that the mythology predates the naming of the planets' satellites - and humans
aware of that mythology named them. You will find "coincidences" like that all over the solar system.
The image linked from the summary does not depict the physical locations of cables, but is a schematic of existing connections between points on the globe. The lines in that image have not much to do with where the cables actually are. A more realistic representation of (a subset of) the world's submarine cable networks would e.g. be this big PDF or, in a more comprehensive view, that one (sold for a mere $350:-| ).
"The plant is said to be so big it can be seen on Google Earth"
Not quite, see that entry on GSS.
Additionally, seeing a single tree on Google Earth isn't something special at all,
there's millions of them in the high resolution imagery areas.
Slashdot Mirror
Phoenix' tilt sensor reports it to be sitting on the surface
with a tilt of a quarter of a degree!
This is as close to perfection as it could possibly get.
It just touched down - and survived.
;-)
(Yeah, I know, 15min ago, gimme some lag
But if you drop them, won't they just remain in orbit?
Yes, absolutely. It is impossible to just "drop" something on earth from
a stable orbit - remember: You are already constantly falling.
Or will a tiny push be enough to get them down to earth?
I'd expect them to be rocket propelled rods to a certain extent.
Targetting will be a bitch though: You'd have to do a more or less controlled
reentry (tip forward, or the earodynamic breaking would mess with your speed) on
an arced trajectory, and very precisely hold on to your trajectory - even very
minor errors will make the rod completely miss the target.
The whole thing sounds interesting as an idea, but gets complicated very quickly as you
start thinking about an implementation.
Specifically, everyone assumed Mammals came before birds ontil the fossil record showed otherwise.
;-)
[citation needed]
Seriously - who is this everyone you refer to?
People are suffering and all you guys can think of is "youtube block", "human rights", and so on.
C'mon, guys, people are dying there and please, have a heart, wilya ??
You mean as opposed to those heartless, brutal human rights activists?
Just because people are talking about various (un)related issues doesn't mean they don't care, you know.
And this was far from being unrelated.
TFA: The near absence of gravity (microgravity) ...
JFTR: At 400km above ground (the ISS's orbit), the gravitational acceleration
the Earth exerts is still about 88% of the acceleration on the ground.
It is a very common misconception that gravity somehow instantly vanishes as you
arrive in space. It isn't so - in fact, gravity is crucial for that weightlessness in orbit.
So instead of a boom we'll have a Sonic Whoosh now?
Imagine the opportunities for Slashdot commenters!
I think that the engine that experienced a brief exposure to supersonic flow got a sudden 'decrease'
;-) - but I just recently read Ben Rich's book about his time at Lokheed's Skunk Works
in engine thrust, and the pilots threw their heads onto the side that was opposite to the malfunctioning
engine. Can an actual areo engineer confirm my theory?
IANAAE
(he ended up managing the place) - you are basically right, the affected engine's thrust decreased dramatically.
This issue was internally called an "unstart" of the engine. It wasn't however a simple "accidental thrust
vectoring": The pilots would be thrown all over the cockpit, often unable to tell which engine was affected.
During test flights, the pilot would sometimes guess wrong and switch off the good engine, getting himself in
some pretty uncomfortable situations.
The problem was never solved for good. A workaround was implemented as a firmware upgrade (seriously!) and did
do the trick: If an engine was detected to have "unstarted", the electronics would do the same to the other engine -
thereby retaining thrust symmetry - and then ramping both engines up again together.
Pilots mostly didn't even notice an unstart had happened from there on.
Those poor birds.
That's mostly a legend, remaining from the times of small, very fast rotating wind wheels.
Nowadays, this isn't an issue any more: The wheels are much higher (less birds) and slower
(birds can react to and avoid them). I've been to a couple of recent generation generators,
and have even climbed one (great view) - there wasn't a single dead bird lying around in the
vicinity. Yes, I looked for them.
Remind me, why should we copy the Russians in the space arena? In which regard are they ahead of the west?
Daylight. They are constantly hours ahead, and the west still hasn't caught up.
What a great concept - for trackers: You individually register and have
to stay identifiable during all your browsing so trackers know it is you.
You allow them to track you so they stop tracking you.
Soundy like a great idea?
Yeah, to me neither.
... All-Time High ...
;-)
So it will decrease from now on?
Found Adblock Plus dev builds and attempted to install. FF3b5 returned an error saying the extension was incompatible.
The compatibility check is just a string comparison.
Let me reiterate:
You might need to disable FF's internal compatibility check - which is no problem, ABP 0.7.5.3+.2008032513 works fine in FF3b5.
I'm running it right now. Remember, you are using beta software.
Dev builds, eh? Using the included update check, and the extensions site says otherwise.
Of course it does. You wouldn't expect dev builds to show up as updates for release versions,
would you?
Get your dev build here: http://adblockplus.org/development-builds/more-firefox-3-fixes
You might need to disable FF's internal compatibility check - which is no problem, ABP 0.7.5.3+.2008032513 works fine in FF3b5.
Adblock, all iterations, are broken ATM.
Not true. Adblock Plus dev builds work fine in FF3.
OK, someone has to lose his geek card here. Misspelling the name of one of the /." list.
Netscape cofounders is pretty high on the "how to look like an idiot on
His name's Andreessen, Marc Andreessen.
now, does all that fancy mathematics and statements about the repetition cycle of days include the Leap Year's Lead Day, as well as the fact that it didn't exist the last time this cycle started?
Yes, the formula by Gauß does. That's one of the reasons the mathematics have to be so fancy.
The vast majority of customers for blu-ray technology won't give a rats arse about this. I certainly don't
Well, I do. Let me tell you why:
I don't own a TV. I *do* however own a computer with a WUXGA display. In its current
config, my computer would not be "MAFIAA certified" to play BD discs, even if I hab a BD drive.
I want to be able to play the content on my computer.
With the OS of my choice. With a display of my choice. Without this HDCP crap.
I own a bunch of DVDs because deCSS has become ubiquitous today, and nearly every
computer with a DVD drive can play them, without any platform or software dependencies.
I'm waiting for the same to happen for BD - until then, no money from me.
Please make it happen soon, HD video looks great.
This monopoly is so much better for the consumer.
Yeah, because we all know this evil DVD monopoly drove DVD player
prices to insane heights...
Seriously, this is basic supply and demand at work (more would-'ve-bought HD-DVD
buyers now go for BluRay) and will certainly improve over a probably rather short time.
There's a special filter subscription for Adblock Plus to kill a lot of that tracking
stuff (webbugs, tracking scripts, etc.), the "ABP Tracking Filter" (see #3 on the left).
This of course doesn't make you anonymous online at all, but it helps against the worst
offenders and keeps your data out of their DBs.
(Full disclosure: I am a co-author of that list)
If two telescopes are good, wouldn't three be even better?
It's not like two is some arbitrary limit... right?
Right. VLT has four.
You joke, but Saturn's (Cronus's) wife in mythology was named Rhea. A bit of a coincidence that.
Not really, considering that the mythology predates the naming of the planets' satellites - and humans
aware of that mythology named them. You will find "coincidences" like that all over the solar system.
The image linked from the summary does not depict the physical locations of cables, but is a schematic of existing connections between points on the globe. The lines in that image have not much to do with where the cables actually are. A more realistic representation of (a subset of) the world's submarine cable networks would e.g. be this big PDF or, in a more comprehensive view, that one (sold for a mere $350 :-| ).
Huh, what? I didn't do it.
"The plant is said to be so big it can be seen on Google Earth"
Not quite, see that entry on GSS.
Additionally, seeing a single tree on Google Earth isn't something special at all,
there's millions of them in the high resolution imagery areas.