I'm sure it was a legend when I first heard it. But sometimes these things take a life (legs) of their own. i.e. how the model of the slealth fighter F-19 was "exposed" to the public when F-117 was still classified. Story goes Revell was not making much sales until a congressman saw it in a window of a hobby shop. He then started with a diatribe back at the House, "Why is it the Pentagon keeps this secret from Congress and the American people while they let Revell sell a model of this?" After that sales of the F-19 skyrocketed (I still yet to assemble mine).
>Plutonium is minimally chemically toxic [cdc.gov]
thanks for the link, I'll check it out. I have no experience with Pu or bombmaking so all I know of the subject is what I've read (in the good, bad, and the marginal).
My first impression of this micro-edit is slashdot has really took a turn to the worst. Many other websites that used to be convenient to access and read now has all kinds of goofy javascript or other mischief i.e. gizmodo so I figured this site has bit the dust like everyone else. Then..... I realized April 1st! I all hope this is just a bad dream and when I wake up tomorrow everything will be like it was.
This reminds me of a satire (Mad or Cracked magazine) on how the military can create impression of more units than they have. One concept presented are tanks with large mirrors mounted in front facing the vehicle, likewise for the rear. Multiple reflections creates illusion of a column of hundreds of tanks (like what you see when standing between two mirrors). Another were inflatable soldier standups like those that when pushed over they right themselves back up. These are described as lightweight, quickly inflatable and easy transport (shows a suitcase titled, "Caution: Contains US Army").
Regarding all these social networks, I think many are simply alias of same people (same person will have one for their regular persona, and several others for their alternative personas). There may be several others where people lost password so they create another. And a lot of others with too much time to spare (except posting to/. of course).
I heard the physics is easy (basic theory) but the engineering is hard. It takes a lot of development to ensure when bomb is denotated all or most of the fissionable material undergoes reaction (split apart), rather than the TNT simply blows the nuclear material into a big toxic cloud (which is probably just as devastating as a nuclear reaction). Then making the bomb small size and a useful delivery system (i.e. reliable missille that has range, payload, and accuracy). Then there is H-bombs, another host of developmental problems. Of course there are nuclear bombs (though typically called devices) that are very small but these are results of billions of dollars spent by a country with a strong technical base.
On subject of small bombs, there was a bazooka launched a-bomb called the Davy Crockett but the blast area is about the size of the delivery range. Kind of useless like an atomic grenade, you can't throw it far enough away.
As most/. people know the key ingredients are the fissionable materials (U and Pu) which are hard to get, and may be dangerous to handle. Supposably Pu is very toxic, it will kill you by chemical means first before radiation.
In 1970s I heard a story where someone found a chunk of plutonium alongside a road, this person was so pissed off that such material used for A-bombs was found unsecure like a piece of litter, he mailed it to his local congressman with a letter protesting government's lax security for such material. This must me a legend of tall proportions since Pu is toxic.
Area I'm at does not have DSL and I ain't gonna signup for Comcast! So..... could one of these be used to access some highspeed wireless broadband? (OK so I admit I'm not a wifi guru like everybody else). How would it compare to using a Ubiquiti Networks Bullet mounted on a tall pole with a high gain 2.4GHz antenna to reach free wifi in certain neighborhoods that have it? Though I also have to ask do these have reasonable throughput as I found Google wifi in Mountain View reeeeaaaallllyyy ssssllllooowwww.
Wow, all this iphone stuff sure getting lots of interesting stories and I don't have an iphone. I feel like I'm missing all the action. I hear lots of it on the scanner, I have yet witness a 23103 (CVC for reckless driver) vehicle that's announced on CHP freq.
I drove by a DUI checkpoint, in opposite direction, on a late night. I was thinking about making a u-turn just to see what's it all about. but it was late and I just wanted to get home to sleep. oh well, missed the action on that one as well.
I read someplace diamonds formed deep below (high temperatures, high pressures) are the size of footballs. However, as they are pushed upwards through the crust over millions of years, they get broken up into much smaller pieces. And much smaller than footballs when it finally makes it to the near surface. (yes diamonds are hard but give tectonic movements enough time, anything will break).
But think of what it would be like getting the diamond the size of a football! And all the chicks you can pick up with it.
"The spacecraft is an incredibly robust, technically advanced vehicle capable of safely transporting humans to asteroids, Lagrange Points and other deep space destinations that will put us on an affordable and sustainable path to Mars.”
Lots of luck with that unless accompanied by a larger pressurized module for exercising (ISS crews do many hours of this every day). Also need some serious radiation shielding, one big solar flare will surely ruin your day.
I just can't believe when they first unveiled this thing and say it's designed for deep space missions. Only thing I see as practical is for high speed (25,000mph or faster) entry back to earth.
> the poorer you are the more kids you have (which seems extremely backwards, but it's true)
Agreed. A documentary on PBS interviewing a woman from India, when she was a child she noticed poorer families are ones with most children. She figured to have as few children when she grows up, but she ran into major opposition as being in lower class it is tradition women have as many children as possible.
>abstinence is at least a free way to do something
I think abstinence is a bankrupt solution. Sounds great on paper, usually proposed by old guys and/or others with sexual repressions. Yeah right, try persuading young people with raging hormones (and lotsa p0nr on the web and commercials always suggesting sex).
>first to see about improving the education of women in the developing world
Agreed this should be done first but in third world countries, men will have to give up some of their powerbase and traditions.
Everyone loves to mention value of amateur radio when disasters strike (and yes this non-govt, non-centralized infrastructure of wireless communications is difficult to take out). What I see is a much more serious blow and that is removing the wireless "playground" for techies and nerds to do their thing. OK so many of these guys don't spend much time with girls but it is the hands-on experience of applying theory to practice, trying some different kind of radio configuration, or simply seeing what works/what doesn't work.
Besides Marconi or Armstrong, countless engineers and other technical professionals acquired useful skills through bold experimentation to either push the envelope to develop new technologies, knowing how to read schematics and work on systems to get a reasonable paying job instead minimal wage at a retail store, or from past personal experience will know better to not accidently take down entire comm system of their employer (although it sometimes still happens).
If we trash RF spectrum for techies to play with, we stymied personal development in wireless technologies. Not that it would be the end of everything but it will become more difficult for someone to enter that field.
Another scary aspect is this proposal has got to be the dumbest thing ever. Part 90 users are fuming as they are having to narrowband then whammo! They gotta dump all their 450MHz gear and infrastructure, then have to start from the ground up on 700MHz. I really wonder what kind of people we have making such decisions, like they have no competent advisors.
Now that you got me ranting about stuff, I will add only reason to move all PS agencies to 700MHz is because it is easier to organize on MS Excel. What we have here is a failure of policy makers grasping the physics of the situation.
For years we've been hammered with "govt is bad" and "regulation is bad" and FCC being a govt agency that does regulation they inherently have two strikes as the bad guy. Then as this whole jihad against govt spending little agencies like FCC are being further reduced (look at actual fed budget numbers, you will see FCC along with NASA, EPA, Dept of Education take a 16% slice of the pie, but the big slices is never discussed). So it is not surprising FCC lacks those with technical know-how to properly advise policy makers.
Along with other FCC mischief is the approval of mobile broadband by Lightspeed adjacent to GPS freq (there is actually intense meetings at fed agencies in Wash DC about how to deal with this).
So be careful before getting on the bandwagon about reducing govt spending and privatizing everything, look at the rest of budget pie instead of that 16% slice. You may not like the result and it will not do much in overall spending.
I just randomly chose those numbers! I had no idea what exist at that location. Reminds of a story where someone ficticiously published an address which in reality was a house used by an intelligence agency.
Maps!? Baww! In my day we didn't have maps and we liked it! We found our way by reading the stars!
I think this is true, I was talking with someone who was in the Marines, he mentioned his group was on some training exercise (on foot, no vehicles) and they couldn't figure out where they were. And the maps were not much help. He said there was this one guy who grew up in the back country, was not that smart with people and technical stuff. But he could look up at the stars and point to the map, "this is where we are and we need to go this way."
so far lots of humorous comments, damn I'd hate to see psychology studies for full colon. Reminds me I did a presentation on the WCS "space toilet" recently for the Traveling Space Museum. Out of curiousity for more info, I found a Hamilton Standard 1973 report, "Waste collection subsystem development"
Abstract: Engineering studies, design activity and testing associated with the development of a waste
collection system to accommodate both male and female crewmembers in a space environment are reported. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19730019213
ok so I'm going offtopic but seems to be a real pisser just to make a toilet for a spaceship.
> Shuttle: 450m per flight, 1.5bn per shuttle to build
well not really, account for infrastructure costs and it is much more
> Soyuz seats are probably the most cost-effective and time-tested design
Korolev lives on!
But I say need to consider what you get for Shuttle and Soyuz without just looking at the direct $$$ figures. Orion, Dragon, and others are still computer models and test articles. Soyuz is small but one hell of a space taxi. Shuttle is big, really big, you can load a railroad boxcar in the cargo bay (nothing ever has been this big and never will). Oh, you can also bring things back.
Another thing Shuttle has is an airlock so some astronauts can go outside without having all crew wear pressure suits.
And Shuttle has a toilet so when I gotta take a crap, I go inside the can by myself. Consider with all other vehicles, "hold on a sec, I need to take a crap." While other crew continue working in same room, I pull down my pants and underwear, place a poop bag on my butt, "poop, poop, poop, fart, fart, fart." Wipe my ass, stuff it in the bag and shove in the disposal slot.
There was an article (mentioned here on slashdot?) that debunked the common story it was visionaries like Hewlett, Packard, Noyce, Moore and others that created Silicon Valley. Which they did but at government expense, back in those early days (1950s, 1960s) 80% of semiconductor sales were to military. Somewhat hard to believe but it makes sense with DOD spending on "space age" electronics plus all the subcontractors and other companies to support the big boys. So.... with ever increasing spending on national security with Maryland being in the center... become the new Silicon Valley? But here's the wildcard: Outsourcing to China nowadays. Back in 1950s and 60s, everything was done here so many people of all walks of life can get in on the action (i.e. Solder Ladies). And whatever computers you buy, most certain there are no "Cylon Kill Switches" built inside.
"I have worked for a long time in the software industry."
Well, software ain't hardware. And they actually had all their tweaking and damned they got it to work and landed on the moon. F1 engine was a horrible development activity, they can get it up to thrust but there was still problems with dynamic instability. During this time looking for solutions, including having a machinist drill as many holes in the injector plate (or whatever that portion was called which mixes H2 and O2 together) to see if it reduces the instability. There was lots of effort but eventually they solved it. F1 engine can be fired up at 1.5million lbs thrust, they detonate a small bomb in the nozzle and dynamics dampened out. F1 was certified to fly in 1965, F1 project manager died 6 months later.
An excellent book to read is "Apollo: Race To The Moon" by Charles Murray and Catherine Cox. Unlike other books on Apollo program that focuses on the astronauts, this 1989 book focuses on the managers, developers, and the titans of that time who built NASA and the Apollo program. Who are the ones that made it happen, astronauts were pilots or chauffers of the vehicles. Gene Kranz says ***this*** is the book to read about how it was done. Lots of good stuff in this publication, one of my favorites is discussion of Don "Mad Don" Arabian of MER (mission evaulation room). MER is part of "Mission Control" one of three portions MOCR (the operations room we see on TV), SPAN (interface between MER and MOCR). Don has lots of memorable quotes such as "we don't need any fancy damn consoles" and referring to NASA HQ in DC, "hubcaps, useless ornamentation."
>According to DSLreports.com:
>99% of the country is already connected to high speed internet via wireless 3G connections.
I just cannot believe this, unless they did a survey which only those with wireless 3G connections. Maybe if you simply lotsa $$$ you can get highspeed wireless internet anywhere, but I'm not stinking rich and there is no DSL in at my part of the city.
>pilot and controller speak to each other in very precisely defined and very concise language
Nice example, thanks!
>CB radio, old timers who used to deal with really crappy radios, and bad movies.
Saying "over" is necessary when operating SSB on HF, you don't hear the mic clicks and sometimes not sure if person on other end has finished talking. Coast Guard uses "over" when operating on VHF marine channels which I assume for boat drivers steering outside or with a noisy engine or wind.
Bad movies don't use "over." They use "over and out."
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure it was a legend when I first heard it. But sometimes these things take a life (legs) of their own. i.e. how the model of the slealth fighter F-19 was "exposed" to the public when F-117 was still classified. Story goes Revell was not making much sales until a congressman saw it in a window of a hobby shop. He then started with a diatribe back at the House, "Why is it the Pentagon keeps this secret from Congress and the American people while they let Revell sell a model of this?" After that sales of the F-19 skyrocketed (I still yet to assemble mine).
thanks for the link, I'll check it out. I have no experience with Pu or bombmaking so all I know of the subject is what I've read (in the good, bad, and the marginal).
Probably a good option because a real /.er does not read the articles though many times I do so I guess I'm disqualified.
fyi, what is this "ponies" other people reference?
My first impression of this micro-edit is slashdot has really took a turn to the worst. Many other websites that used to be convenient to access and read now has all kinds of goofy javascript or other mischief i.e. gizmodo so I figured this site has bit the dust like everyone else. Then..... I realized April 1st! I all hope this is just a bad dream and when I wake up tomorrow everything will be like it was.
This reminds me of a satire (Mad or Cracked magazine) on how the military can create impression of more units than they have. One concept presented are tanks with large mirrors mounted in front facing the vehicle, likewise for the rear. Multiple reflections creates illusion of a column of hundreds of tanks (like what you see when standing between two mirrors). Another were inflatable soldier standups like those that when pushed over they right themselves back up. These are described as lightweight, quickly inflatable and easy transport (shows a suitcase titled, "Caution: Contains US Army").
Regarding all these social networks, I think many are simply alias of same people (same person will have one for their regular persona, and several others for their alternative personas). There may be several others where people lost password so they create another. And a lot of others with too much time to spare (except posting to /. of course).
I heard the physics is easy (basic theory) but the engineering is hard. It takes a lot of development to ensure when bomb is denotated all or most of the fissionable material undergoes reaction (split apart), rather than the TNT simply blows the nuclear material into a big toxic cloud (which is probably just as devastating as a nuclear reaction). Then making the bomb small size and a useful delivery system (i.e. reliable missille that has range, payload, and accuracy). Then there is H-bombs, another host of developmental problems. Of course there are nuclear bombs (though typically called devices) that are very small but these are results of billions of dollars spent by a country with a strong technical base.
On subject of small bombs, there was a bazooka launched a-bomb called the Davy Crockett but the blast area is about the size of the delivery range. Kind of useless like an atomic grenade, you can't throw it far enough away.
As most /. people know the key ingredients are the fissionable materials (U and Pu) which are hard to get, and may be dangerous to handle. Supposably Pu is very toxic, it will kill you by chemical means first before radiation.
In 1970s I heard a story where someone found a chunk of plutonium alongside a road, this person was so pissed off that such material used for A-bombs was found unsecure like a piece of litter, he mailed it to his local congressman with a letter protesting government's lax security for such material. This must me a legend of tall proportions since Pu is toxic.
Area I'm at does not have DSL and I ain't gonna signup for Comcast! So..... could one of these be used to access some highspeed wireless broadband? (OK so I admit I'm not a wifi guru like everybody else). How would it compare to using a Ubiquiti Networks Bullet mounted on a tall pole with a high gain 2.4GHz antenna to reach free wifi in certain neighborhoods that have it? Though I also have to ask do these have reasonable throughput as I found Google wifi in Mountain View reeeeaaaallllyyy ssssllllooowwww.
Wow, all this iphone stuff sure getting lots of interesting stories and I don't have an iphone. I feel like I'm missing all the action. I hear lots of it on the scanner, I have yet witness a 23103 (CVC for reckless driver) vehicle that's announced on CHP freq.
I drove by a DUI checkpoint, in opposite direction, on a late night. I was thinking about making a u-turn just to see what's it all about. but it was late and I just wanted to get home to sleep. oh well, missed the action on that one as well.
I read someplace diamonds formed deep below (high temperatures, high pressures) are the size of footballs. However, as they are pushed upwards through the crust over millions of years, they get broken up into much smaller pieces. And much smaller than footballs when it finally makes it to the near surface. (yes diamonds are hard but give tectonic movements enough time, anything will break).
But think of what it would be like getting the diamond the size of a football! And all the chicks you can pick up with it.
"The spacecraft is an incredibly robust, technically advanced vehicle capable of safely transporting humans to asteroids, Lagrange Points and other deep space destinations that will put us on an affordable and sustainable path to Mars.”
Lots of luck with that unless accompanied by a larger pressurized module for exercising (ISS crews do many hours of this every day). Also need some serious radiation shielding, one big solar flare will surely ruin your day.
I just can't believe when they first unveiled this thing and say it's designed for deep space missions. Only thing I see as practical is for high speed (25,000mph or faster) entry back to earth.
> the poorer you are the more kids you have (which seems extremely backwards, but it's true)
Agreed. A documentary on PBS interviewing a woman from India, when she was a child she noticed poorer families are ones with most children. She figured to have as few children when she grows up, but she ran into major opposition as being in lower class it is tradition women have as many children as possible.
>abstinence is at least a free way to do something
I think abstinence is a bankrupt solution. Sounds great on paper, usually proposed by old guys and/or others with sexual repressions. Yeah right, try persuading young people with raging hormones (and lotsa p0nr on the web and commercials always suggesting sex).
>first to see about improving the education of women in the developing world
Agreed this should be done first but in third world countries, men will have to give up some of their powerbase and traditions.
You can tell the space aliens portrayed are also from a movie because they all speak English.
Excellent discussion, I like the term "Boeing Buzzard."
Everyone loves to mention value of amateur radio when disasters strike (and yes this non-govt, non-centralized infrastructure of wireless communications is difficult to take out). What I see is a much more serious blow and that is removing the wireless "playground" for techies and nerds to do their thing. OK so many of these guys don't spend much time with girls but it is the hands-on experience of applying theory to practice, trying some different kind of radio configuration, or simply seeing what works/what doesn't work.
Besides Marconi or Armstrong, countless engineers and other technical professionals acquired useful skills through bold experimentation to either push the envelope to develop new technologies, knowing how to read schematics and work on systems to get a reasonable paying job instead minimal wage at a retail store, or from past personal experience will know better to not accidently take down entire comm system of their employer (although it sometimes still happens).
If we trash RF spectrum for techies to play with, we stymied personal development in wireless technologies. Not that it would be the end of everything but it will become more difficult for someone to enter that field.
Another scary aspect is this proposal has got to be the dumbest thing ever. Part 90 users are fuming as they are having to narrowband then whammo! They gotta dump all their 450MHz gear and infrastructure, then have to start from the ground up on 700MHz. I really wonder what kind of people we have making such decisions, like they have no competent advisors.
Now that you got me ranting about stuff, I will add only reason to move all PS agencies to 700MHz is because it is easier to organize on MS Excel. What we have here is a failure of policy makers grasping the physics of the situation.
For years we've been hammered with "govt is bad" and "regulation is bad" and FCC being a govt agency that does regulation they inherently have two strikes as the bad guy. Then as this whole jihad against govt spending little agencies like FCC are being further reduced (look at actual fed budget numbers, you will see FCC along with NASA, EPA, Dept of Education take a 16% slice of the pie, but the big slices is never discussed). So it is not surprising FCC lacks those with technical know-how to properly advise policy makers.
Along with other FCC mischief is the approval of mobile broadband by Lightspeed adjacent to GPS freq (there is actually intense meetings at fed agencies in Wash DC about how to deal with this).
So be careful before getting on the bandwagon about reducing govt spending and privatizing everything, look at the rest of budget pie instead of that 16% slice. You may not like the result and it will not do much in overall spending.
I just randomly chose those numbers! I had no idea what exist at that location. Reminds of a story where someone ficticiously published an address which in reality was a house used by an intelligence agency.
Maps!? Baww! In my day we didn't have maps and we liked it! We found our way by reading the stars!
I think this is true, I was talking with someone who was in the Marines, he mentioned his group was on some training exercise (on foot, no vehicles) and they couldn't figure out where they were. And the maps were not much help. He said there was this one guy who grew up in the back country, was not that smart with people and technical stuff. But he could look up at the stars and point to the map, "this is where we are and we need to go this way."
Well all I got to say is I'm yappin' with someone on how get to where I want to go and they say, "I'm at 37.655, -121.998."
dammit how about a street address? and a cross street will be helpful as well. and if you got brain one, how about Thomas Guide page/grid number?
so far lots of humorous comments, damn I'd hate to see psychology studies for full colon. Reminds me I did a presentation on the WCS "space toilet" recently for the Traveling Space Museum. Out of curiousity for more info, I found a Hamilton Standard 1973 report, "Waste collection subsystem development"
Abstract: Engineering studies, design activity and testing associated with the development of a waste
collection system to accommodate both male and female crewmembers in a space environment are reported.
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19730019213
ok so I'm going offtopic but seems to be a real pisser just to make a toilet for a spaceship.
> You think email is dead: you should talk to the 10,000 very unhappy students
what about those 150,000 gmail users that got their account reset? are they unhappy?
... become third world countries.
> Shuttle: 450m per flight, 1.5bn per shuttle to build
well not really, account for infrastructure costs and it is much more
> Soyuz seats are probably the most cost-effective and time-tested design
Korolev lives on!
But I say need to consider what you get for Shuttle and Soyuz without just looking at the direct $$$ figures. Orion, Dragon, and others are still computer models and test articles. Soyuz is small but one hell of a space taxi. Shuttle is big, really big, you can load a railroad boxcar in the cargo bay (nothing ever has been this big and never will). Oh, you can also bring things back.
Another thing Shuttle has is an airlock so some astronauts can go outside without having all crew wear pressure suits.
And Shuttle has a toilet so when I gotta take a crap, I go inside the can by myself. Consider with all other vehicles, "hold on a sec, I need to take a crap." While other crew continue working in same room, I pull down my pants and underwear, place a poop bag on my butt, "poop, poop, poop, fart, fart, fart." Wipe my ass, stuff it in the bag and shove in the disposal slot.
There was an article (mentioned here on slashdot?) that debunked the common story it was visionaries like Hewlett, Packard, Noyce, Moore and others that created Silicon Valley. Which they did but at government expense, back in those early days (1950s, 1960s) 80% of semiconductor sales were to military. Somewhat hard to believe but it makes sense with DOD spending on "space age" electronics plus all the subcontractors and other companies to support the big boys. So.... with ever increasing spending on national security with Maryland being in the center... become the new Silicon Valley? But here's the wildcard: Outsourcing to China nowadays. Back in 1950s and 60s, everything was done here so many people of all walks of life can get in on the action (i.e. Solder Ladies). And whatever computers you buy, most certain there are no "Cylon Kill Switches" built inside.
"I have worked for a long time in the software industry."
Well, software ain't hardware. And they actually had all their tweaking and damned they got it to work and landed on the moon. F1 engine was a horrible development activity, they can get it up to thrust but there was still problems with dynamic instability. During this time looking for solutions, including having a machinist drill as many holes in the injector plate (or whatever that portion was called which mixes H2 and O2 together) to see if it reduces the instability. There was lots of effort but eventually they solved it. F1 engine can be fired up at 1.5million lbs thrust, they detonate a small bomb in the nozzle and dynamics dampened out. F1 was certified to fly in 1965, F1 project manager died 6 months later.
An excellent book to read is "Apollo: Race To The Moon" by Charles Murray and Catherine Cox. Unlike other books on Apollo program that focuses on the astronauts, this 1989 book focuses on the managers, developers, and the titans of that time who built NASA and the Apollo program. Who are the ones that made it happen, astronauts were pilots or chauffers of the vehicles. Gene Kranz says ***this*** is the book to read about how it was done. Lots of good stuff in this publication, one of my favorites is discussion of Don "Mad Don" Arabian of MER (mission evaulation room). MER is part of "Mission Control" one of three portions MOCR (the operations room we see on TV), SPAN (interface between MER and MOCR). Don has lots of memorable quotes such as "we don't need any fancy damn consoles" and referring to NASA HQ in DC, "hubcaps, useless ornamentation."
>According to DSLreports.com: >99% of the country is already connected to high speed internet via wireless 3G connections.
I just cannot believe this, unless they did a survey which only those with wireless 3G connections. Maybe if you simply lotsa $$$ you can get highspeed wireless internet anywhere, but I'm not stinking rich and there is no DSL in at my part of the city.
>pilot and controller speak to each other in very precisely defined and very concise language
Nice example, thanks!
>CB radio, old timers who used to deal with really crappy radios, and bad movies.
Saying "over" is necessary when operating SSB on HF, you don't hear the mic clicks and sometimes not sure if person on other end has finished talking. Coast Guard uses "over" when operating on VHF marine channels which I assume for boat drivers steering outside or with a noisy engine or wind.
Bad movies don't use "over." They use "over and out."