The cover picture was taken by R. Jay Gabany, using nice equipment, but nothing too extravagant - 20-inch reflector, I believe. The telescope he uses can be booked by the public, and controlled through the Internet.
I've been looking around for some kind of service that will let me choose the shows I like and then subscribe to an RSS feed that updates me whenever one of the shows I watch has a new episode, so I can set the PVR, etc.
/. posted an announcement of the full list a couple of months ago, but NIAC just posted short descriptions of each technology.
We've been interviewing each of the proponents and getting the full story.
So, it'll be a few more months before we've gone through all of them. If that's not fast enough for you, come and write for me.:-)
Audio interview with one of the researchers
on
Wormholes Unstable (BBC)
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I just completed a podcast interviewing Dr. Stephen Hsu, one of the contributors to this research. He explains more about how wormholes are theoretically impossible to keep stable.
Sorry, I caught that after I'd sent out the newsletter. Calling me a moron, though, ouch. I wonder what term you reserve for improper use of commas, or sentences in the passive voice.
I'll second that. I've had several email addresses published on the web for about 6 years now, and I just started using Gmail as my only mail interface. It handles all of my SPAM beautifully, properly classifying about 30 messages an hour as junk, and leaving me the correct email.
You probably do already. My cable bill is about $60 CDN a month, and I only watch about 10 hours a week of the best shows. So, I'm already paying close to $1 a show.
If I could pay DOUBLE and have access to every TV show ever made, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat.
I wrote the article, and now I'm reading through the Slashdot comments, and they're killing me. Didn't anyone actually RTFA?!?
Let me clear these up...
1. The cable would be 58,000 km long. This is the distance from the Moon to the L1 point, which is the balance point of gravity between the Earth and Moon. The Earth pulls the elevator straight using its gravity. If you looked at the Moon from the Earth, the space elevator would always be at exactly the same place on the Moon, always pointed directly at us, like we're tugging at it with the Earth's gravity. This has nothing to do with centrifigal force, like an Earth-based elevator where the counterweight keeps the cable taut.
2. Because of low gravity on the Moon, you could build the elevator with commercially available materials on the market today, like Kevlar or M5. The cable would be light enough that it could be launched on a single heavy lift rocket available from Arianespace, Boeing or Lockheed Martin.
One launch = one lunar space elevator
3. You could connect a second cable to the Moon's south pole, so the two cables form a V, and then bring up water ice from the south pole. This would put water, air and rocket fuel into high Earth orbit at a fraction of the price of bringing it up from Earth.
4. As you make the cable longer, it allows you to kick objects into high-Earth orbit. You could transfer materials from the Moon into orbit for relatively little fuel.
If you take a look at the picture in the article, you can connect a second cable to the Moon's southern pole and just run material up from there. So, you don't need to travel over the ground.
All modern video cards have multiple monitor outputs. I run a regular monitor, and then a television as my second monitor (it's HiDef, so I use a digital video cable). I have the audio going digitally from the computer output into my stereo tuner so that it comes out as 5.1 sound if the video file supports that. I use a Winfast TV card to record television shows off cable, and then we can watch them later. The great thing for this is being able to have a zillion shows recorded for my kids - Dora/Spongebob marathons at the click of a button. I can also be working on my computer while my wife is watching a show on the television. I'm sort of like her Tivo.
It's easy to forward your mail to Gmail, but if you reply to anything, it'll come from your gmail address. I'd like a way that I can just check my regular mail using the Gmail interface. That would be really professional for me. I'm happy to look at ads, but right now I have to use a gmail address, and people think it's some kind of scam when emails come from me, but use a gmail address.
I think we're already there. I'm grateful whenever Google News picks up my articles and runs my site on the homepage. The traffic boost is significant. It's no Slashdotting, though - that makes my server groan.
I've got a Motorola 6208, which has the single HD tuner and 80 GB hard drive. I'm really happy with the box, and it only cost me $650 CDN. We can't get HD over the air here in Canada, and none of our satellite companies offer a HD PVR yet, so this is the only feasible option. The hard drive is small, but I don't really care. I've got a computer with a tuner connected to my HDTV as well, and it's busy archiving stuff that I want to hang onto. I generally delete stuff off the PVR once I've watched it. The only shows I want to archive are shows for my kids - every episode of Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder, Spongebob, etc.
I wonder if this is the beginning of the end for the traditional music companies. From what I understand, the key benefit they bring to the music business is marketing. They use their marketing and distribution channels to make a band popular or not.
If iTunes is starting to offer an affiliate program, then it will encourage websites to develop song lists and various tools that analyze your current listening tastes and then recommend songs that you can buy from iTunes. Obviously there'll be a flurry of crap and SPAM, but eventually some pretty cool services are going to emerge.
Services which can avoid the traditional music labels entirely. Artists can produce a song, a vast network of freelance marketers can promote it (instead of 5 big media conglomerates), and music buyers can pay for it.
Well, as a former employee of interactivetools.com, I can testify that it's a great place to work. The company has a catered lunch every day and all kinds of other perks.
Oh, and "Dave" is the owner, so you can get a sense of the corporate culture, considering it goes all the way to the top.
James was my replacement as the marketing director, after I left - that could have been me.:-)
This is enormous news when you consider the bottleneck of time the Hubble Space Telescope has become. If it works well, you can expect this technology to be applied to many ground-based observatories.
Then multiply it with the technology that merges the images from several mirrors to act like one giant mirror.
Finally, when you match this technology with the new technique devised to detect the atmospheres of distant planets, it really offers a lot to planet hunters.
I think this will revolutionize planet hunting, and bring the detection of Earth-sized planets with oxygen atmospheres within the near future.
I just got off the phone with NBC, and they told me that they'll be announcing the method people will use to sign up for the competition in about a month.
The story was generated based on several presentations given at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The total number of new planets discovered is 10, including the double planet system of twin Saturn-sized planets.
The information was actually released to the various news agencies last week, but was under strict embargo until early this morning.
This brings the total number of extrasolar planets to 50.
It looks like this story was leaked by Nasawatch/SpaceRef or Space.com prematurely. It was supposed to be embargoed until the International Astronomical Union actually made the announcement on Monday. Naughty naughty.
Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag now, so here's a list of all the sites covering the story in addition to Nasawatch/SpaceRef.
The news will get much better on Monday, when all us space news sites can actually post the real story and provide all the details. Stay tuned.
This story was originally written as an Associate Press article, and all the major space news sites have AP feeds. So, you're likely to see exactly the same coverage anywhere you go.
Right now, everything is just rumour and speculation. In fact, NASA has flatly denied that the Pluto mission is cancelled. This reminds me about the recent discovery "lakes on Mars"... er "liquid water on Mars"... er "evidence that liquid water existed on Mars in the recent geologic past"
As always, here's a comprehensive list of all the coverage I could dig up. I warn you, though, it's all very "similar"... er "identical".
Here's a comprehensive list of Internet resources about this story:
The original Arctic Mars homepage was providing regular updates about the research station, but they stopped around two weeks ago. They still have a lot of background material about the story.
Marc Boucher, CEO of SpaceRef is also the webmaster for the project, so SpaceRef has a tremendous amount of coverage of the project, as well as a live webcam.
In my opinion, though, MSNBC has had the absolutely best coverage, providing stories almost daily; unfortunately, they overwrite the older stories so there's no archive: July 31 - Mars simulation begins in Arctic
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps you can have the parallel universe salary.
The cover picture was taken by R. Jay Gabany, using nice equipment, but nothing too extravagant - 20-inch reflector, I believe. The telescope he uses can be booked by the public, and controlled through the Internet.
Here's more of his work:
http://www.cosmotography.com/
Wow, I didn't think this would get onto Slashdot. Anyway, I enabled WP-cache, so the server can handle the load now.
y s2007.pdf
Here's a direct link to the book, just in case the server goes down again:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomycast/365da
I've been looking around for some kind of service that will let me choose the shows I like and then subscribe to an RSS feed that updates me whenever one of the shows I watch has a new episode, so I can set the PVR, etc.
Anyone know of such a site?
/. posted an announcement of the full list a couple of months ago, but NIAC just posted short descriptions of each technology.
:-)
We've been interviewing each of the proponents and getting the full story.
So, it'll be a few more months before we've gone through all of them. If that's not fast enough for you, come and write for me.
I just completed a podcast interviewing Dr. Stephen Hsu, one of the contributors to this research. He explains more about how wormholes are theoretically impossible to keep stable.
Sorry, I caught that after I'd sent out the newsletter. Calling me a moron, though, ouch. I wonder what term you reserve for improper use of commas, or sentences in the passive voice.
I'll second that. I've had several email addresses published on the web for about 6 years now, and I just started using Gmail as my only mail interface. It handles all of my SPAM beautifully, properly classifying about 30 messages an hour as junk, and leaving me the correct email.
You probably do already. My cable bill is about $60 CDN a month, and I only watch about 10 hours a week of the best shows. So, I'm already paying close to $1 a show.
If I could pay DOUBLE and have access to every TV show ever made, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat.
I wrote the article, and now I'm reading through the Slashdot comments, and they're killing me. Didn't anyone actually RTFA?!?
Let me clear these up...
1. The cable would be 58,000 km long. This is the distance from the Moon to the L1 point, which is the balance point of gravity between the Earth and Moon. The Earth pulls the elevator straight using its gravity. If you looked at the Moon from the Earth, the space elevator would always be at exactly the same place on the Moon, always pointed directly at us, like we're tugging at it with the Earth's gravity. This has nothing to do with centrifigal force, like an Earth-based elevator where the counterweight keeps the cable taut.
2. Because of low gravity on the Moon, you could build the elevator with commercially available materials on the market today, like Kevlar or M5. The cable would be light enough that it could be launched on a single heavy lift rocket available from Arianespace, Boeing or Lockheed Martin.
One launch = one lunar space elevator
3. You could connect a second cable to the Moon's south pole, so the two cables form a V, and then bring up water ice from the south pole. This would put water, air and rocket fuel into high Earth orbit at a fraction of the price of bringing it up from Earth.
4. As you make the cable longer, it allows you to kick objects into high-Earth orbit. You could transfer materials from the Moon into orbit for relatively little fuel.
If you take a look at the picture in the article, you can connect a second cable to the Moon's southern pole and just run material up from there. So, you don't need to travel over the ground.
All modern video cards have multiple monitor outputs. I run a regular monitor, and then a television as my second monitor (it's HiDef, so I use a digital video cable). I have the audio going digitally from the computer output into my stereo tuner so that it comes out as 5.1 sound if the video file supports that. I use a Winfast TV card to record television shows off cable, and then we can watch them later. The great thing for this is being able to have a zillion shows recorded for my kids - Dora/Spongebob marathons at the click of a button. I can also be working on my computer while my wife is watching a show on the television. I'm sort of like her Tivo.
It's easy to forward your mail to Gmail, but if you reply to anything, it'll come from your gmail address. I'd like a way that I can just check my regular mail using the Gmail interface. That would be really professional for me. I'm happy to look at ads, but right now I have to use a gmail address, and people think it's some kind of scam when emails come from me, but use a gmail address.
I think we're already there. I'm grateful whenever Google News picks up my articles and runs my site on the homepage. The traffic boost is significant. It's no Slashdotting, though - that makes my server groan.
I've got a Motorola 6208, which has the single HD tuner and 80 GB hard drive. I'm really happy with the box, and it only cost me $650 CDN. We can't get HD over the air here in Canada, and none of our satellite companies offer a HD PVR yet, so this is the only feasible option. The hard drive is small, but I don't really care. I've got a computer with a tuner connected to my HDTV as well, and it's busy archiving stuff that I want to hang onto. I generally delete stuff off the PVR once I've watched it. The only shows I want to archive are shows for my kids - every episode of Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder, Spongebob, etc.
I wonder if this is the beginning of the end for the traditional music companies. From what I understand, the key benefit they bring to the music business is marketing. They use their marketing and distribution channels to make a band popular or not.
If iTunes is starting to offer an affiliate program, then it will encourage websites to develop song lists and various tools that analyze your current listening tastes and then recommend songs that you can buy from iTunes. Obviously there'll be a flurry of crap and SPAM, but eventually some pretty cool services are going to emerge.
Services which can avoid the traditional music labels entirely. Artists can produce a song, a vast network of freelance marketers can promote it (instead of 5 big media conglomerates), and music buyers can pay for it.
Well, as a former employee of interactivetools.com, I can testify that it's a great place to work. The company has a catered lunch every day and all kinds of other perks.
:-)
Oh, and "Dave" is the owner, so you can get a sense of the corporate culture, considering it goes all the way to the top.
James was my replacement as the marketing director, after I left - that could have been me.
This is enormous news when you consider the bottleneck of time the Hubble Space Telescope has become. If it works well, you can expect this technology to be applied to many ground-based observatories.
Then multiply it with the technology that merges the images from several mirrors to act like one giant mirror.
Finally, when you match this technology with the new technique devised to detect the atmospheres of distant planets, it really offers a lot to planet hunters.
I think this will revolutionize planet hunting, and bring the detection of Earth-sized planets with oxygen atmospheres within the near future.
Fraser Cain
I just got off the phone with NBC, and they told me that they'll be announcing the method people will use to sign up for the competition in about a month.
One way will be through the web.
As soon as I hear more, I'll pass it along.
The story was generated based on several presentations given at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The total number of new planets discovered is 10, including the double planet system of twin Saturn-sized planets.
The information was actually released to the various news agencies last week, but was under strict embargo until early this morning.
This brings the total number of extrasolar planets to 50.
Here're the original source links to this story:
And then coverage by news sources around the Internet:
And of course, my own coverage on Universe Today.
Planet Discoveries Coming Fast and Furious - August 7, 2000
Fraser Cain
It looks like this story was leaked by Nasawatch/SpaceRef or Space.com prematurely. It was supposed to be embargoed until the International Astronomical Union actually made the announcement on Monday. Naughty naughty.
Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag now, so here's a list of all the sites covering the story in addition to Nasawatch/SpaceRef.
The news will get much better on Monday, when all us space news sites can actually post the real story and provide all the details. Stay tuned.
And of course, my own coverage at Universe Today:
Astronomers Discover Nearby Extrasolar Planet - August 4, 2000
Fraser Cain
This story was originally written as an Associate Press article, and all the major space news sites have AP feeds. So, you're likely to see exactly the same coverage anywhere you go.
Right now, everything is just rumour and speculation. In fact, NASA has flatly denied that the Pluto mission is cancelled. This reminds me about the recent discovery "lakes on Mars"... er "liquid water on Mars"... er "evidence that liquid water existed on Mars in the recent geologic past"
As always, here's a comprehensive list of all the coverage I could dig up. I warn you, though, it's all very "similar"... er "identical".
And of course, my own coverage on Universe Today
NASA Costs Rise Significantly - August 4, 2000
Fraser Cain
Now I think this story is really interesting. Here's a list of Internet coverage about the story:
The research is being done by the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. Here's their press release on the subject.
To shoot the bugs into space, they used a NASA sounding rocket. Information on the rocket launch facility is located here.
Here are some links to the Discovery.com article, as well as a few others:
And, of course, my own coverage on Universe Today:
Fraser Cain
Here's a comprehensive list of Internet resources about this story:
The original Arctic Mars homepage was providing regular updates about the research station, but they stopped around two weeks ago. They still have a lot of background material about the story.
From that point on, current news has been posted to the Mars Society Homepage.
Marc Boucher, CEO of SpaceRef is also the webmaster for the project, so SpaceRef has a tremendous amount of coverage of the project, as well as a live webcam.
In my opinion, though, MSNBC has had the absolutely best coverage, providing stories almost daily; unfortunately, they overwrite the older stories so there's no archive:
July 31 - Mars simulation begins in Arctic
And, of course, my own coverage at Universe Today:
Fraser Cain
Here are more Internet resources on this topic:
Check out NASA's webpage about the mission:
Pluto-Kuiper Express Homepage
The Planetary Society is organizing a campaign to make sure the mission doesn't get cancelled:
Planeta ry Society News Release
Here are other news sites covering the story:
CNN Space
MSNBC
SpaceViews
And, of course, my own coverage at Universe Today.
Fraser Cain