It was less than a year ago that the USA was putting up such a fight about Russia commecialising space by flying the worlds fist space tourist to the ISS and now they are preposing commecialisation along a very similar direction.
I think the USA was scared off the whole space tourism thing by the Challenger disaster which also happened to be carrying the first non-astronaught to ride on the shuttle. If this new proposal can bring more funding into NASA it could be a big bonus not only for space bound activities, but for the R&D that filters down and eventually end up enhancing our lives.
We have one of these German WWII rocket planes at the War Memorial (museum) in Canberra Australia. As well as a V2 rocket (much better looking German rocket vehical) It has got to take the honors as the funniest looking plane I have ever seen. Well actually the new Stealth planes are pretty funny looking too.
I find it hard to believe that they where ever aerodynamically stable. There is no way you could have every gotten me to sit in one. And the same goes for any new replica.
Is it just me or does anyone else think that pushing the limits of rocket design technology at public airshows might not be in the best interests of public safty?
In conventional top fuel drag racing when things go wrong which they often do it can often result in part flying off 100's of meters into the air. Dragsters by their very nature are stressed to the limits of their durability, in order to get that little bit faster than the next guy.
I don't think we want distasters reminisant of the challenger disaster happening at airshows before we decide this is a bad idea.
I want to know if all this extra bandwidthis being paid for or whether internationally the cost of internet bandwidth is dropping. Here in australia with the internet backbone provided by only to main companies we are still charged fairly restrictive bandwidth prices.
I currently have a permament 28.8kbs connection charged at AU18c a Mb. With the advent of a PPPoE switched network in our city it was meant to herald a new age of connectivity with streaming movies and megabandwidth available. Shure it may be available but they are charging pretty similar rates per meg to my current modem connection. Meaning I could run up a AU$500 bill in a matter of minutes downloading the debian iso's for example.
Shouldn't the increse of available bandwidth decrease the cost to the consumers?
Working in a physical Sciences research department you get to see the size of most of the equipment used in this field. Particle Accelerators used for analysis techniques such as carbon dating (just and example) can way thousands of tons. Even a humble electron microscope used in almost every form of material research in its usual form would have to way at least a ton. And the sample preperation techniques used would be very dificult to automate and again take advantage of some pretty heavy equipment.
Then there is the question of powering these big power hungry machines. Are we sending powerplants to mars too now?
I realise that none of the equipment we use in our labs is state of the art in terms of miniturisation, but I doubt that we will ever be able to shrink the research equipment available to just one University down small enough to send to Mars, let alone the entire world's research equipment. Of course it is a good idea to bring the samples back.
I agree that any extra funding you can get into the education system is a good thing. But I can also see that the type of adds would have to be choosen fairly carefuly. I can imagine raunchy adds for condoms or lingerie could seriously distract classes.
Re:Check out the original web site TROLL..
on
WonderSwan Advance
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· Score: -1, Offtopic
So far one the most interesting use of quatum devices I have seen involved taking a wafer with an esentially random distribution of quatum dots and then using a neural net type arrangement to learn how to control it to get useful results out. I can't remember all the details but I think the setup was part of an optical light switching system.
I thought it was an interesting way of getting use out of devices that we are still not able to produce with accuracy.
Think of the confusion
on
Protein Music
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· Score: 3
Now when the aliens recieve our DNA they won't know if we have sent them our genetic blueprint or just our latest symphonic masterpiece.
Unfortunatly the film badges will still only alert you to the danger after it is too late (once developed). There are electronic personal dose meters available that give you an instant readout of the amount of radiation you are recieving and keeps track of long term exposure.
I hope the government moves quickly and bans these devices, before their proliferation leads to certain harm.
I am certain that this is already illegal. I know for a fact that all devices in Australia that produce over a certain amount of ionising radiation have to be registered. There is strict control over unautorised access to labs with radiating apparatus, personal radiation radiation monitoring must be in place and every precaution must be taken to avoid accidental exposure.
Slashdot Mirror
Here is one explanation of how Velcro was invented. Sounds believable to me. Doesn't seem to involve Nazis or NASA...
It was less than a year ago that the USA was putting up such a fight about Russia commecialising space by flying the worlds fist space tourist to the ISS and now they are preposing commecialisation along a very similar direction.
I think the USA was scared off the whole space tourism thing by the Challenger disaster which also happened to be carrying the first non-astronaught to ride on the shuttle. If this new proposal can bring more funding into NASA it could be a big bonus not only for space bound activities, but for the R&D that filters down and eventually end up enhancing our lives.
We have one of these German WWII rocket planes at the War Memorial (museum) in Canberra Australia. As well as a V2 rocket (much better looking German rocket vehical) It has got to take the honors as the funniest looking plane I have ever seen. Well actually the new Stealth planes are pretty funny looking too.
I find it hard to believe that they where ever aerodynamically stable. There is no way you could have every gotten me to sit in one. And the same goes for any new replica.
Is it just me or does anyone else think that pushing the limits of rocket design technology at public airshows might not be in the best interests of public safty?
In conventional top fuel drag racing when things go wrong which they often do it can often result in part flying off 100's of meters into the air. Dragsters by their very nature are stressed to the limits of their durability, in order to get that little bit faster than the next guy.
I don't think we want distasters reminisant of the challenger disaster happening at airshows before we decide this is a bad idea.
I want to know if all this extra bandwidthis being paid for or whether internationally the cost of internet bandwidth is dropping. Here in australia with the internet backbone provided by only to main companies we are still charged fairly restrictive bandwidth prices.
I currently have a permament 28.8kbs connection charged at AU18c a Mb. With the advent of a PPPoE switched network in our city it was meant to herald a new age of connectivity with streaming movies and megabandwidth available. Shure it may be available but they are charging pretty similar rates per meg to my current modem connection. Meaning I could run up a AU$500 bill in a matter of minutes downloading the debian iso's for example.
Shouldn't the increse of available bandwidth decrease the cost to the consumers?
Working in a physical Sciences research department you get to see the size of most of the equipment used in this field. Particle Accelerators used for analysis techniques such as carbon dating (just and example) can way thousands of tons. Even a humble electron microscope used in almost every form of material research in its usual form would have to way at least a ton. And the sample preperation techniques used would be very dificult to automate and again take advantage of some pretty heavy equipment.
Then there is the question of powering these big power hungry machines. Are we sending powerplants to mars too now?
I realise that none of the equipment we use in our labs is state of the art in terms of miniturisation, but I doubt that we will ever be able to shrink the research equipment available to just one University down small enough to send to Mars, let alone the entire world's research equipment. Of course it is a good idea to bring the samples back.
I agree that any extra funding you can get into the education system is a good thing. But I can also see that the type of adds would have to be choosen fairly carefuly. I can imagine raunchy adds for condoms or lingerie could seriously distract classes.
Do not click on the link in the above comment.
This is probably the best Linux laptop one can buy right now
Is it just me or there some reason an iBook would make a better linux notebook than a G4 Powerbook?
So far one the most interesting use of quatum devices I have seen involved taking a wafer with an esentially random distribution of quatum dots and then using a neural net type arrangement to learn how to control it to get useful results out. I can't remember all the details but I think the setup was part of an optical light switching system.
I thought it was an interesting way of getting use out of devices that we are still not able to produce with accuracy.
Now when the aliens recieve our DNA they won't know if we have sent them our genetic blueprint or just our latest symphonic masterpiece.
Unfortunatly the film badges will still only alert you to the danger after it is too late (once developed). There are electronic personal dose meters available that give you an instant readout of the amount of radiation you are recieving and keeps track of long term exposure.
I hope the government moves quickly and bans these devices, before their proliferation leads to certain harm.
I am certain that this is already illegal. I know for a fact that all devices in Australia that produce over a certain amount of ionising radiation have to be registered. There is strict control over unautorised access to labs with radiating apparatus, personal radiation radiation monitoring must be in place and every precaution must be taken to avoid accidental exposure.