In an engineering setting it is appropriate to measure communication through electronic media, where there is a lot of technical details to be transmitted. The mostly empty barking of most verbal communication, and the inherent disinformation in body language makes talking a much less important media for communication. However, our herd instincts lead us to communicate more with friends than strangers (as shown by the clumping in the report) no matter how we have communicated with them. So while verbal communication is a catalyst, it is not what really needs to be measured for this kind of communications analysis. Since communication can really only take place between equals, its no surprise that managemental howling and chest-thumping often scores low on the actual communication taking place.
Re:Exactly what the space program needs
on
Beer In Space
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· Score: 1
I agree, we should be spending more time and money (not just $$$, but other countries as well). Since outside of Japan and China the traditional incentives for space activities are waning in their effectiveness in maintaining budgets, I think that maybe Beer in space will act as a new incentive to appeal to the masses and maybe get them to realize, hey, space is for me! Sorry about the long sentence.
Exactly what the space program needs
on
Beer In Space
·
· Score: 2
Okay, so beer in space won't help with problems like fluid loss or loss of coordination brought about by the microgravity environment, but it will help keep moral up on those long, long missions. I'm sure the Russians have already brought Vodka to space, their culture being a little less plagued by puritanical fanatacism. Beer in space will certainly make it a more attractive place for space tourism, and Casino's which are right now only pondering space voyages, might see the light now! Of course, it is crucial that the Beer is dutch, because if we started sending US domestic beers to space no one would ever go again! Talk about space debris!
Did anyone notice that in paragraph six they say PS2 has a 32 bit CPU, while in paragraph 18 they say PS2 has a 128 bit CPU? What else are they making up in this report?
Wait a minute, you mean video wargame technology can be used to make real war? Hello!
They are in six orbital planes, 11 operational satellites per plane, with a few spares here and there. In LEO (low Earth orbit) their orbital period is about 90 minutes, which means that for any given user, a satellite will be overhead for maybe ten minutes max before having to switch off to another satellite. Since the Iridium phone is omindirectional, the new satellite just has to take over the CDMA signal and you get to keep on talking. Since the satellites are usually beaming the signal among themselves to a satellite over a downlink station, it isn't too hard to take one out of the loop and put another in. Hope that clears things up. Can post more if this isn't already over the heads of most readers here.
I believe the A. thaliania Genome Initiative website lists the total sequence length being around 118 million bases. 2 bits per base pair, you are correct. But you are wrong that plants can't have more genetic information than humans. Many organisms can and do have a lot more genetic information that us. What will be really significant is when all of the alleles of all of the genes are known.
Okay, now we can really start working. Up until now the genomics community has had to do very labor intensive sequencing of any genes it wanted to investigate. Now, however, we can do the really interesting work of finding out what all of these genes actually do, and even what it means to be a gene! Considering we already have worm, fly, and several bacteria genomes, and that mouse, rat, puffer fish, and zebra fish are coming soon, we should see a huge explosion in the comparative genomics field.
We now have the book of life, let's learn to read.
MOOSE, a NASA concept where you ride a large foam filled bag back down to Earth, using the foam as an ablative heat shield and then open a parachute for the last few km.
Lets put the "survive?" back into survivor.
Indeed, the most interesting thing about this find is the possibility for moons. In the absence of large moons holding their own atmospheres (such as Titan) you could have smaller moons with a thin ice shell (such as Europa). At 1 AU sunlight could penetrate the ice or atmosphere and drive photosynthetic activity as it does here on mother Earth. In the absence of geothermal heating one may have tidal heating (such as Io) driving geological processes to make sure elements are sufficiently mixed to create the complex chemistry called life. I don't think eclipses would be much of a problem as the moons will be revolving quickly enough around their planet to keep the eclipses short. I would hope the universe would provide for life on such moons just to have someone to appreciate the view!
I believe it is industry standard to undertake controlled de-orbiting manauvers to avoid the most populated areas. I suppose Iridium's financial myopia may have also precluded this but that is extremely neglegent. As you can see Russia is taking great pains to make sure Mir doesn't hit anyone when (if) it comes down. And if you think thats bad, imagine what they're going to have to do with the ISS when it becomes too dangerous to live in! Still, if we didn't have so many damn people in the world the odds would be a lot lower.
The NASA PR engine has long pandered to the US's puritanical values. One doesn't have to dig too deep to discover that Astronauts have been cursing since the Mercury program.
More interesting is the relationship between ground controllers in US and Russia. As stated in the article, US ground control carefully plans and simulates every activity to make the Astronauts' difficult tasks as easy as possible. Russian policy is to train the crew well enough that they can improvise in any situation, which makes the 'you could have broke it' comment from the Russian ground control interesting. Were they talking to Shepard? Or was the crew not trained to repair the CO2 scrubber?
Anyway, its no surprise to see a space project requiring more than twice the time and effort envisioned by the big heads.
Slashdot Mirror
In an engineering setting it is appropriate to measure communication through electronic media, where there is a lot of technical details to be transmitted. The mostly empty barking of most verbal communication, and the inherent disinformation in body language makes talking a much less important media for communication. However, our herd instincts lead us to communicate more with friends than strangers (as shown by the clumping in the report) no matter how we have communicated with them. So while verbal communication is a catalyst, it is not what really needs to be measured for this kind of communications analysis. Since communication can really only take place between equals, its no surprise that managemental howling and chest-thumping often scores low on the actual communication taking place.
I agree, we should be spending more time and money (not just $$$, but other countries as well). Since outside of Japan and China the traditional incentives for space activities are waning in their effectiveness in maintaining budgets, I think that maybe Beer in space will act as a new incentive to appeal to the masses and maybe get them to realize, hey, space is for me! Sorry about the long sentence.
Okay, so beer in space won't help with problems like fluid loss or loss of coordination brought about by the microgravity environment, but it will help keep moral up on those long, long missions. I'm sure the Russians have already brought Vodka to space, their culture being a little less plagued by puritanical fanatacism. Beer in space will certainly make it a more attractive place for space tourism, and Casino's which are right now only pondering space voyages, might see the light now! Of course, it is crucial that the Beer is dutch, because if we started sending US domestic beers to space no one would ever go again! Talk about space debris!
Wait a minute, you mean video wargame technology can be used to make real war? Hello!
They are in six orbital planes, 11 operational satellites per plane, with a few spares here and there. In LEO (low Earth orbit) their orbital period is about 90 minutes, which means that for any given user, a satellite will be overhead for maybe ten minutes max before having to switch off to another satellite. Since the Iridium phone is omindirectional, the new satellite just has to take over the CDMA signal and you get to keep on talking. Since the satellites are usually beaming the signal among themselves to a satellite over a downlink station, it isn't too hard to take one out of the loop and put another in. Hope that clears things up. Can post more if this isn't already over the heads of most readers here.
I believe the A. thaliania Genome Initiative website lists the total sequence length being around 118 million bases. 2 bits per base pair, you are correct. But you are wrong that plants can't have more genetic information than humans. Many organisms can and do have a lot more genetic information that us. What will be really significant is when all of the alleles of all of the genes are known.
We now have the book of life, let's learn to read.
MOOSE, a NASA concept where you ride a large foam filled bag back down to Earth, using the foam as an ablative heat shield and then open a parachute for the last few km. Lets put the "survive?" back into survivor.
Indeed, the most interesting thing about this find is the possibility for moons. In the absence of large moons holding their own atmospheres (such as Titan) you could have smaller moons with a thin ice shell (such as Europa). At 1 AU sunlight could penetrate the ice or atmosphere and drive photosynthetic activity as it does here on mother Earth. In the absence of geothermal heating one may have tidal heating (such as Io) driving geological processes to make sure elements are sufficiently mixed to create the complex chemistry called life. I don't think eclipses would be much of a problem as the moons will be revolving quickly enough around their planet to keep the eclipses short. I would hope the universe would provide for life on such moons just to have someone to appreciate the view!
I believe it is industry standard to undertake controlled de-orbiting manauvers to avoid the most populated areas. I suppose Iridium's financial myopia may have also precluded this but that is extremely neglegent. As you can see Russia is taking great pains to make sure Mir doesn't hit anyone when (if) it comes down. And if you think thats bad, imagine what they're going to have to do with the ISS when it becomes too dangerous to live in! Still, if we didn't have so many damn people in the world the odds would be a lot lower.
The NASA PR engine has long pandered to the US's puritanical values. One doesn't have to dig too deep to discover that Astronauts have been cursing since the Mercury program. More interesting is the relationship between ground controllers in US and Russia. As stated in the article, US ground control carefully plans and simulates every activity to make the Astronauts' difficult tasks as easy as possible. Russian policy is to train the crew well enough that they can improvise in any situation, which makes the 'you could have broke it' comment from the Russian ground control interesting. Were they talking to Shepard? Or was the crew not trained to repair the CO2 scrubber? Anyway, its no surprise to see a space project requiring more than twice the time and effort envisioned by the big heads.