I spent two seasons in the mid-1980s excavating at Nohmul, and can put a rest to some of the speculation here.
Nobody in this region is unaware of the nature of these ruins, nor their significance. This part of the country is flat limestone plains, and it is generally understood that any small hills are in reality ancient ruins.
The site draws almost no tourists whatsoever (it is almost entirely unrestored), so liability is not a concern. While not amongst the better known sites, it had much historic value nonetheless, which is why it was the subject of numerous investigations by Cambridge and Rutgers Universities, National Geographic, etc. The destruction of one Nohmul's primary structures for road fill is indeed a tragedy. The gentleman who owned the site when I excavated there would never have let this happen, but I suspect that ownership changed hands in the interim.
It is estimated that bacteria alone (only one component of our microbiome) far outnumber human cells. I'm not totally up on my modern biology, but i suspect that the situation with birds is comparable; could any species be resurrected successfully in the absence of its associated microfauna?
So Facebook, you want to be the preeminent social media site, but you want me to pay for every message sent to my non-FB friends? Let me know how that works out for you...
Opting out at choice.live.com requires registration, including providing an email address. [sarcasm]I'm sure i'll never receive unsolicited emails from them! [/sarcasm]
Biologists have relatively recently come to understand the complexity, abundance and importance of the mammalian microbiome; for example, it is estimated that bacteria alone (only one component of our microbiome) far outnumber human cells. Given that mammoths are long extinct, their associated microfauna are likely absent from the word as well. Doesn't sound promising for maintaining healthy animals...
I second the suggestion. New Scientist is awesome - it covers every science subject under (and well beyond) the sun, and does so in a manner that is technologically sophisticated, yet well within the reach of any reasonably well-educated reader. The weekly print version is admittedly a bit expensive (especially for those not in the U.K.), but much of the content is covered for free at their website (www.newscientist.com).
That mirrors my experience. As a kid i shopped there so often for components that they'd memorized my name, address & phone number (back then RS required you to supply these; some BS about warrant/return requirements). Years later, it became apparent that the place was populated with sales driods working on commission, who knew *nothing* whatsoever about electronics:/
So when will ADVENT.bas be added? I remember dialing up to a DECsystem 20 using an ASR33 teletype and 300 baud acoustic modem, and would *love* to experience playing this again!
Although the Church Committee ostensibly ended COINTELPRO in 1971, revelations such as these that surface every few years make it clear that such tactics have *never* been abandoned by the FBI.
Oral history is an essential start, but it must be verified using written documentation. My grandmother gave me exact names and dates of arrival of our ancestors, but my subsequent research revealed her memory to be quite flawed...:/
There is another important aspect to this that you missed: audio bandwidth.
Cellphones are designed with a high level of compression (so that a single tower can handle numerous calls simultaneously); to accomplish this, the audio is seriously degraded (massive loss of highs and lows). As a result, your brain is working much harder (although it's subconscious, so you don't notice) to pick out what is being said, rendering your ability to concentrate on other tasks far more difficult than you realize. It doesn't matter whether or not you're using a hands-free set; it is significantly more distracting than listening to a higher fidelity source, like someone sitting ne
If FaceBook was up front about its privacy policy, i'd be fine with them sharing information...but the fact is, they pulled a bait-and-switch by first promising privacy, then significantly altering the terms of the agreement under which i'd signed up to allow for wholesale sharing of my information. It's this underhandedness that i, and many others, abhor.
They're also blatantly dishonest. I've been getting notices that say "your friend X recommends you befriend Y", but i've confirmed that these messages are generated by a FaceBook algorithm, NOT submitted by the person whom they say.
If it weren't the only way to know what my family members are up to, i'd swear off FaceBook in a heartbeat...come to think of it, i might anyway...
I learned electronics starting as a young kid when i obtained one of those "150-in-1" (or 100-in-one or 200-in-1) kits with an assortment of components on a board with spring connectors, to which you run wires according to directions in the manual. The one i had (probably Radio Shack) had cartoon characters of electron characters that explained the theory behind the circuitry you were wiring up. No need to solder, no need to dig through parts bins, but great for learning the theory behind a variety of circuit types (alarms, radios, high voltage generators, etc.).
There are tons of these type kits out there - as well as kits to build individual devices (also great learning experiences, and you wind up with a useful piece of equipment) - check the links at http://www.lutins.org/lists/electronics.html If you *are* thinking of building a single-device kit, i highly recommend the Midnight Science Ultra-RX1, an ultrasonic listening device available from http://www.midnightscience.com/ultra-kits.html. The kit is built in three sections, with instructions on how to do some troubleshooting-type testing after each section. When you're done, you'll have a device that allows you to listen in on ultrasonic emanations (bugs, bats, etc.) - mine works *way* better than i ever expected!
Who said it's 75 ohm coax? A bunch of coax lines running to an attic sounds like it could have been a ham radio setup, in which case 50 ohm cabling would have been used.
Slashdot Mirror
I spent two seasons in the mid-1980s excavating at Nohmul, and can put a rest to some of the speculation here.
Nobody in this region is unaware of the nature of these ruins, nor their significance. This part of the country is flat limestone plains, and it is generally understood that any small hills are in reality ancient ruins.
The site draws almost no tourists whatsoever (it is almost entirely unrestored), so liability is not a concern. While not amongst the better known sites, it had much historic value nonetheless, which is why it was the subject of numerous investigations by Cambridge and Rutgers Universities, National Geographic, etc. The destruction of one Nohmul's primary structures for road fill is indeed a tragedy. The gentleman who owned the site when I excavated there would never have let this happen, but I suspect that ownership changed hands in the interim.
It is estimated that bacteria alone (only one component of our microbiome) far outnumber human cells. I'm not totally up on my modern biology, but i suspect that the situation with birds is comparable; could any species be resurrected successfully in the absence of its associated microfauna?
Or is it more like this? http://hackaday.com/2009/11/03/wozs-watch-makes-air-travelers-nervous/
So Facebook, you want to be the preeminent social media site, but you want me to pay for every message sent to my non-FB friends? Let me know how that works out for you...
...Cambridge University.
...something amateur ("ham") radio operators have been using since the 1980's...
-allen
KC2KLC
Opting out at choice.live.com requires registration, including providing an email address. [sarcasm]I'm sure i'll never receive unsolicited emails from them! [/sarcasm]
I would have expected mention of what may be Slashdot's most profound contribution to the Internet: The Slashdot Effect!
This would seem to fall under the frightening rubric that, "by definition 50% of people are of below-average intelligence"...
...that an ad for Squareup (served by ad.doubleclick.net) appears at the top of of my browser window when viewing this article...
Biologists have relatively recently come to understand the complexity, abundance and importance of the mammalian microbiome; for example, it is estimated that bacteria alone (only one component of our microbiome) far outnumber human cells. Given that mammoths are long extinct, their associated microfauna are likely absent from the word as well. Doesn't sound promising for maintaining healthy animals...
I second the suggestion. New Scientist is awesome - it covers every science subject under (and well beyond) the sun, and does so in a manner that is technologically sophisticated, yet well within the reach of any reasonably well-educated reader. The weekly print version is admittedly a bit expensive (especially for those not in the U.K.), but much of the content is covered for free at their website (www.newscientist.com).
I think it's pretty funny that a Netflix ad appeared on my page to the right of this discussion...
That mirrors my experience. As a kid i shopped there so often for components that they'd memorized my name, address & phone number (back then RS required you to supply these; some BS about warrant/return requirements). Years later, it became apparent that the place was populated with sales driods working on commission, who knew *nothing* whatsoever about electronics :/
So when will ADVENT.bas be added? I remember dialing up to a DECsystem 20 using an ASR33 teletype and 300 baud acoustic modem, and would *love* to experience playing this again!
Although the Church Committee ostensibly ended COINTELPRO in 1971, revelations such as these that surface every few years make it clear that such tactics have *never* been abandoned by the FBI.
You called it - posted to /. just today: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/16/0754215/Man-Mines-Facebook-For-Security-Questions-Nabs-Nude-Photos-From-Email
Oral history is an essential start, but it must be verified using written documentation. My grandmother gave me exact names and dates of arrival of our ancestors, but my subsequent research revealed her memory to be quite flawed... :/
There is another important aspect to this that you missed: audio bandwidth.
Cellphones are designed with a high level of compression (so that a single tower can handle numerous calls simultaneously); to accomplish this, the audio is seriously degraded (massive loss of highs and lows). As a result, your brain is working much harder (although it's subconscious, so you don't notice) to pick out what is being said, rendering your ability to concentrate on other tasks far more difficult than you realize. It doesn't matter whether or not you're using a hands-free set; it is significantly more distracting than listening to a higher fidelity source, like someone sitting ne
If FaceBook was up front about its privacy policy, i'd be fine with them sharing information...but the fact is, they pulled a bait-and-switch by first promising privacy, then significantly altering the terms of the agreement under which i'd signed up to allow for wholesale sharing of my information. It's this underhandedness that i, and many others, abhor.
They're also blatantly dishonest. I've been getting notices that say "your friend X recommends you befriend Y", but i've confirmed that these messages are generated by a FaceBook algorithm, NOT submitted by the person whom they say.
If it weren't the only way to know what my family members are up to, i'd swear off FaceBook in a heartbeat...come to think of it, i might anyway...
I learned electronics starting as a young kid when i obtained one of those "150-in-1" (or 100-in-one or 200-in-1) kits with an assortment of components on a board with spring connectors, to which you run wires according to directions in the manual. The one i had (probably Radio Shack) had cartoon characters of electron characters that explained the theory behind the circuitry you were wiring up. No need to solder, no need to dig through parts bins, but great for learning the theory behind a variety of circuit types (alarms, radios, high voltage generators, etc.).
There are tons of these type kits out there - as well as kits to build individual devices (also great learning experiences, and you wind up with a useful piece of equipment) - check the links at http://www.lutins.org/lists/electronics.html If you *are* thinking of building a single-device kit, i highly recommend the Midnight Science Ultra-RX1, an ultrasonic listening device available from http://www.midnightscience.com/ultra-kits.html. The kit is built in three sections, with instructions on how to do some troubleshooting-type testing after each section. When you're done, you'll have a device that allows you to listen in on ultrasonic emanations (bugs, bats, etc.) - mine works *way* better than i ever expected!
...let me guess, it's April 1st on the other side of the dateline, right?
I'd install wireless :P
Lots of coax lines to an attic sounds more like a ham radio setup to me, rather than a cable TV setup, in which case those lines *are* 50 ohms.
Who said it's 75 ohm coax? A bunch of coax lines running to an attic sounds like it could have been a ham radio setup, in which case 50 ohm cabling would have been used.