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Comments · 96

  1. Re:8) on Titan May Have an Ocean · · Score: 1

    Burma shave?

  2. 50:1 it's called the on New Nintendo HD Console Rumors Abound · · Score: 1

    Puu.

  3. Re:the TSA's purpose is not stopping terrorists... on TSA Investigates... People Who Complain About TSA · · Score: 1

    Really more of an anarcho-syndicalist commune.

  4. Re:Pretty Ironic.... on William Shatner Wakes Up Crew for Final Discovery Mission · · Score: 1

    The trouble with this is if you pacify those hundreds of people without roofs by giving them roofs, and their response is to now be a lot of happy people not doing their part to move the country forward. Then eventually they don't have to come burn down your roof, because the country, and everyone's roofs, die of lack of funding.

  5. Re:to echo a commenter on TFA.... on Chandrayaan-1 Spots Giant Underground Chamber On the Moon · · Score: 1

    I actually hadn't read your post, I was just replying to ianare's assertions about thermal storage in rock.

    With regard to using lunar regolith as a heat sink, you'll find that lunar regolith has incredibly crappy thermal conductivity, even compared to rock. It's very loosely packed, and consists of lots of silicates and metal oxides. It also has a very high solar absorptivity and IR emissivity, making it very hostile to radiative devices that face it, as it emits a large portion of the solar flux that it sees (around 85%) in the IR spectrum; exactly the spectrum that spacecraft radiators are good at emitting and absorbing. I mention this for a frame of reference, as it allows the regolith on the surface of the moon to heat up quite a bit, and yet, just a few inches down (less than a meter) it's cold enough to freeze water in a vacuum. For several lunar lander and rover applications, a "heat spike" has been considered, that is, something that can pipe heat, as you are suggesting, into the moon. Every time that trade has been done it's come out largely in favor of radiative heat rejection being lighter and more efficient.

    The only concern currently with radiators on the moon, is dust occlusion. Even a 10% coating of a radiator with lunar regolith shows indicators of drastically reducing thermal performance (10% coverage is less than you can see with the naked eye). Perhaps for something that was going to be in the sun, on the moon for decades, a heat spike of some sort could be more viable. Anything near the equator on the moon should be roughly 14 days sun, 14 days dark, though, so again you have to contend with a radiator and phase change thermal storage being lighter and more efficient than a gigantic heat sink.

    Source: This is my job.

  6. Re:to echo a commenter on TFA.... on Chandrayaan-1 Spots Giant Underground Chamber On the Moon · · Score: 2

    You're mentioning the properties of thermal mass of rocks here. Rocks have a high density, so even if their thermal conductivity were high, and their specific heat capacity low, they could still store a decent amount of thermal mass. Most rocks, as well don't have many fissures and crannies where natural convection can take advantage of additional surface area, which also aids their ability to hang onto heat. Another great example of this is lead.

    Hmm... come to think of it, small rocks, lead, cider, gravy, churches, all tend to show this thermal storage tendency. Perhaps witches do as well?

  7. Re:Way to go! on Student Sues FBI For Planting GPS Tracker · · Score: 2

    For the first time, in decades, if not centuries, the US were attacked by someone on their own home ground.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor Unless territories don't count....

  8. Re:what? on Ubuntu: Where Did the Love Go? · · Score: 1

    LOL... thought the exact same thing. You've probably never heard of my favorite distribution. /tightjeans

  9. Re:What's going on? on Ubuntu: Where Did the Love Go? · · Score: 1

    Not that I don't agree with you, but man... if your comment were just a /. Summary, it'd be the funniest thing I read all day: *Assertion *Assertion stated as fact about opinions being stated as facts in summaries *Rhetorical question It's almost as though your post would be writing about itself. Of course, it's a comment, so it's a totally different context.

  10. Re:Data transfers on Voyager 1 Beyond Solar Wind · · Score: 2
    We've left all but the most broad definitions of the solar system behind on $865 million, and yet we spend nearly that amount per unit to enable the annihilation of millions of our fellow beings without them ever knowing.

    What a world.

  11. Re:What if on Sheriff's Online Database Leaks Info On Informants · · Score: 1

    Usually governmental annual security training is distributed in the form of a computer based slide show that can be skipped through without actually reading. At the end there's a test with questions like "If you have a laptop with classified information on it, you can take it on vacation in P.R.C., True/False." The kind of questions where if you know the title of the class, you can guess the right answer. And if you get them all wrong, it's possible to spam answers until it's listed as right.

    So, you're right, but I don't think what they'd inherently implement would do what you're hoping.

  12. Re:DUDE! on Paper Airplane Touches Edge of Space, Glides Back · · Score: 1

    $ sudo make it so

    ...?

  13. Seriously, it's obvious. on Mystery Missile Launched Near LA · · Score: 1

    Anyone can see it's jet entrails. We don't need to be looking for a defense response, we need a mechanic response.

  14. Goofy pauses in internal monologue on Proving 0.999... Is Equal To 1 · · Score: 1

    Every time I read a post about 0.999... my brain pauses after the number, allowing for omitted content. Which I guess there is... 0.000...001.

  15. Re:Let me just say... on Micro-Transactions Coming To Team Fortress 2 Via Steam Wallet · · Score: 1

    When I was your age, having hair was a status symbol. AND WE LIKED IT!

  16. Re:A better user for this technology.... on Micro-Transactions Coming To Team Fortress 2 Via Steam Wallet · · Score: 1

    The other replier makes some good points about red tape, but I think this is an A-class idea too. I'm a senior admin in a server that sees a good bit of traffic, but our bills mainly get paid by occasional donations and largely out of the pocket of one guy. A way to encourage players to support the servers they enjoy would be a fantastic way to ensure that the game continues to roll along happily, and would help the people who do foot the bill pay for nicer, leaner, meaner servers that perform better. Top notch stuff.

  17. TF2 weapons traditionally have tradeoffs on Micro-Transactions Coming To Team Fortress 2 Via Steam Wallet · · Score: 2, Informative

    So far, Valve has been pretty careful to not make a weapon strictly better than anything else available in its loadout slot (the bonesaw/ubersaw being the exception). They always put in some drawback to a weapon that has new abilities. As a result, the proliferation of weaponry has tended to change emphasis on different styles of play vs. making the holder of a particular weapon mightier than anyone without it. There are usually kinks when a weapon gets first released, but once a strict advantage becomes clear, weapon stats usually get changed to alter it.

    It's interesting to see the ebb and flow... suddenly you learned everyone in the server who plays soldier is highly accurate (or not) when the Direct Hit came out. You learned who's an ambush scout when the F.A.N. came out. The cruise-control pyros got their own weapon. Scouts got a way to be useful against a sentry nest, but lost their medium range weapon for it. The list goes on and on.

    Except for that damn fish. I haven't seen yet, but if the taunt for that isn't Monty Python's "Fish Slapping Dance," I'll be a little disappointed.

  18. Re:Badastronomy blog on bill on House Passes NASA Authorization Bill · · Score: 1

    Again, the shuttle funding for the last (two?) year didn't exist until Congress said it should.

  19. Re:Badastronomy blog on bill on House Passes NASA Authorization Bill · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Here's an analogy. Ask a kid if he can get supplies to wash a car and wash it for $5, and tell him to get it all done in an hour. He says he can do it. Now give him $2.50, and expect it to be done in an hour. When the kid doesn't deliver a clean car in an hour and says he needs more money, call him behind schedule and over budget.

    Breaking with that analogy and stepping into the real world, now let's say that you tell a company that you can do an easier job for less money than one of their contractors that has a different outcome. You still are not accomplishing the original goal, just like SpaceX is making one hell of a low earth orbit vehicle, but it's not headed to the moon. So it doesn't save money, it changes the scope of the mission.

    Obama has nothing to do with the originally planned 5 year gap, you are correct. However, the new plan has an undetermined gap in launch capability, let alone extra-low-earth-orbit capability. I'd take 5 years over undetermined, especially when considering Congress' tendency to not support things over status quo when it comes to space exploration.

    I'm not agreeing with the bill to be sure... it seems like a jobs bill designed to build a rocket for the sake of busy work, then scrap it when there's nothing to put on top of it. However the lack of concrete goals in Obama's plan makes me leery of it, because it is so easy to say "we'll get to that tomorrow" if specific goals are not set to begin with.

  20. Re:Keep NASA personal on House Passes NASA Authorization Bill · · Score: 1

    Furthermore, the timing of the bill didn't exactly stop layoffs. They're still letting go roughly 30% of the contractor workforce in Houston, largely due to contract changes with Constellation being canceled. I'm not sure whether it's just the author of the post or Congress that are touting this as a jobs success, but it really isn't.

  21. This will never work. on Canonical Designer Demos Ubuntu Context-Aware UI · · Score: 1

    Assuming you're relaxing when reclined and about to do something when you're sitting up? Don't the Canonical programmers know that the optimal hip angle for coding is 78 degrees?

  22. Another bit from racing on Meet the Virginia-Built 110MPG X-Prize Car · · Score: 1

    The engineers on this team have a racing background, so I know they've seen the difference between "contact" in NASCAR races and open wheel races. As long as no one is too jiggly in NASCAR, the race proceeds with not much more than some scuffed sheet metal. Touch wheels in open wheel, and parts get ripped off. Helps the cars kill off momentum, but for the US drivers who "drive by feel," how will they get around this one?

  23. Read the last couple paragraphs of Revelation on Medieval Copy Protection · · Score: 1

    Rev. 22:18-20:

    [18] For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: [19] And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

    Always made me chuckle, considering the number of times the bible has been reformatted, translated, sourced, etc.

  24. Re:Ohio "Scarlet Letter" License Plates on Drunk Driver Mugshots Featured On Facebook · · Score: 1

    Actually, they look almost exactly like New Mexico plates.

  25. Ohio "Scarlet Letter" License Plates on Drunk Driver Mugshots Featured On Facebook · · Score: 1

    Ohio has (or had if they discontinued it, not sure) a law where repeat convicted offenders of DUI laws get a special yellow license plate with red letters, contrasting the normal colors of Ohio license plates. The biggest difference between that and this is those are served upon convictions.

    Not so sure about arrests. I mean, there's really nothing you're going to do to refute a breathalyzer, but due process has to be respected.