I'm confused how China could not have built one on their own at this point? The F-117 was designed in the 1970's, so "stealth" isn't exactly a new concept. China has a big enough economy to dump billions down the drain figuring out how to build a stealth aircraft, it wouldn't be surprising at all to me that they could achieve it without stealing any US technology.
Whether or not it was entirely a home-grown effort is a different question, but it may include stolen tech only because it was cheaper to steal than to reinvent.
And to say "this was really quick" seems incorrect to me. The F-117 was debuted to the general public twenty years ago. It's likely the Chinese knew it existed before then, so they certainly could have started their own research program long ago. Considering that the F-117 went from initial design to flying prototypes in less than ten years (using 1970's computers, no less), there's no reason to think the Chinese couldn't do something similar using more modern technology.
I'm not sure it's a matter of the animals not caring about a shortened lifespan "as long as they are freed from the intimidating human presence."
Lots of animals actually tend to do much better in what we would consider dangerous levels of radiation than the average human would. While there are still negative effects, they tend to be less pronounced in animals.
While Elena's site does not mention it, even in disaster areas that claimed the lives of humans (citizens who did not evacuate and rescue workers) very quickly, the animal populations in those areas continued living for a much longer period of time, although most of the animals did eventually die from the radiation, as well.
And of course wild animals are going to take over somewhere that humans have moved out of, they're going to exist whereever they can, even within range of "the intimidating human presence."
According to Mad Max Chronology page, Max is born in 1975, and the events of beyond thunderdome happen in 2018. This makes Max 43 just when Thunderdome occured. Certainly, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for Mel Gibson to play what would at least be a 43 year old Max, would it?
Personally, I'm looking forward to a new Mad Max. We can be cynical all we want about how hollywood is just rehashing an old franchise and how this new movie will be terrible, but I'm fairly certain that it will be worth $7.50 to watch a brand new Mad Max.
The only people who ever saw your name and address after giving it to the radio shack sales clerk were radio shack people. Radio Shack never sold, shared or gave away the names and adresses of its customers, all the data was kept within the company for the monthly flyer mailings.
And for people who are offended by the idea of needing the name and address for warranty stuff, well, you shouldn't be. Warranties on most items (other than things like wireless phones or computers) are NOT tracked by serial number, contrary to popular belief. The serial number of that 900 mhz cordless bargin bin phone you just bought is not on the bar code of the box, and therefore it's not entered into the computer when the clerk scans in the UPC.
I work at a radioshack, and I hated asking for names and addresses as much as customers hated giving it out, but it never ceased to amaze me just how many people thought that the shack was in cahoots with the FBI, despite signs on the front of the cash register which say "WE DONT GIVE YOUR INFO TO ANYONE AT ALL."
Anyway, no one ever seemed to mind the whole name and address thing when they wanted to get a refund on those little items like karaoke machines they happened to buy on a friday and bring back on a monday (it's like a free rental service!), but forgot their receipt. Now if someone wants a refund on something but they've forgotten their receipt, they're screwed.
You made a good choice going with Verizon, as they are the largest carrier in the country, and work fairly well as long as you're within 500 miles of the atlantic. Verizons service in the midwest is touch-and-go and out west is somewhat nonexistant (other than really populated areas such as LA.)
While Sprint does have issues with coverage, it's not from lack of experience. The reason Sprints coverage isn't as great is because they use newer & better techs like CDMA as compared to GSM or TDMA like some companies (t-mobile(voicestream) still use.) PCS phones also work at higher frequencies than standard "cell phones" so sprint cannot just contract off of other companies towers all the time, especially in areas where digital signals as opposed to analog is still not widespread.
Basically, PCS technology is a little more advanced than other companies' and in turn is not as widespread.
Still PCS coverage is 10x the coverage of t-mobile(voicestream), which is why I think whoever your sales rep was might not know what he's talking about. They probably have the worst service of any national carrier, and the only reason they're even trying to get new subscribers is the fact they want to up the price when cingular (inevitably) buys them out.
well, i can answer the first question. scientists find planets by studying an effect called "red shift" in a star's motion in our sky. by studying this, we can determine if there is a planet acting with gravitational force on the star. Basically a star with a large enough planet orbiting around it will make the star appear to wobble. Unfortunately, this techinique is only useful for finding planets the size of jupiter (at least), because smaller planets don't "pull" on the star enough to cause a noticable wobble.
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I'm confused how China could not have built one on their own at this point? The F-117 was designed in the 1970's, so "stealth" isn't exactly a new concept. China has a big enough economy to dump billions down the drain figuring out how to build a stealth aircraft, it wouldn't be surprising at all to me that they could achieve it without stealing any US technology.
Whether or not it was entirely a home-grown effort is a different question, but it may include stolen tech only because it was cheaper to steal than to reinvent.
And to say "this was really quick" seems incorrect to me. The F-117 was debuted to the general public twenty years ago. It's likely the Chinese knew it existed before then, so they certainly could have started their own research program long ago. Considering that the F-117 went from initial design to flying prototypes in less than ten years (using 1970's computers, no less), there's no reason to think the Chinese couldn't do something similar using more modern technology.
I think AC means google.
I'm not sure it's a matter of the animals not caring about a shortened lifespan "as long as they are freed from the intimidating human presence."
Lots of animals actually tend to do much better in what we would consider dangerous levels of radiation than the average human would. While there are still negative effects, they tend to be less pronounced in animals.
While Elena's site does not mention it, even in disaster areas that claimed the lives of humans (citizens who did not evacuate and rescue workers) very quickly, the animal populations in those areas continued living for a much longer period of time, although most of the animals did eventually die from the radiation, as well.
And of course wild animals are going to take over somewhere that humans have moved out of, they're going to exist whereever they can, even within range of "the intimidating human presence."
According to Mad Max Chronology page, Max is born in 1975, and the events of beyond thunderdome happen in 2018. This makes Max 43 just when Thunderdome occured. Certainly, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for Mel Gibson to play what would at least be a 43 year old Max, would it?
Personally, I'm looking forward to a new Mad Max. We can be cynical all we want about how hollywood is just rehashing an old franchise and how this new movie will be terrible, but I'm fairly certain that it will be worth $7.50 to watch a brand new Mad Max.
The only people who ever saw your name and address after giving it to the radio shack sales clerk were radio shack people. Radio Shack never sold, shared or gave away the names and adresses of its customers, all the data was kept within the company for the monthly flyer mailings.
And for people who are offended by the idea of needing the name and address for warranty stuff, well, you shouldn't be. Warranties on most items (other than things like wireless phones or computers) are NOT tracked by serial number, contrary to popular belief. The serial number of that 900 mhz cordless bargin bin phone you just bought is not on the bar code of the box, and therefore it's not entered into the computer when the clerk scans in the UPC.
I work at a radioshack, and I hated asking for names and addresses as much as customers hated giving it out, but it never ceased to amaze me just how many people thought that the shack was in cahoots with the FBI, despite signs on the front of the cash register which say "WE DONT GIVE YOUR INFO TO ANYONE AT ALL."
Anyway, no one ever seemed to mind the whole name and address thing when they wanted to get a refund on those little items like karaoke machines they happened to buy on a friday and bring back on a monday (it's like a free rental service!), but forgot their receipt. Now if someone wants a refund on something but they've forgotten their receipt, they're screwed.
You made a good choice going with Verizon, as they are the largest carrier in the country, and work fairly well as long as you're within 500 miles of the atlantic. Verizons service in the midwest is touch-and-go and out west is somewhat nonexistant (other than really populated areas such as LA.)
While Sprint does have issues with coverage, it's not from lack of experience. The reason Sprints coverage isn't as great is because they use newer & better techs like CDMA as compared to GSM or TDMA like some companies (t-mobile(voicestream) still use.) PCS phones also work at higher frequencies than standard "cell phones" so sprint cannot just contract off of other companies towers all the time, especially in areas where digital signals as opposed to analog is still not widespread.
Basically, PCS technology is a little more advanced than other companies' and in turn is not as widespread.
Still PCS coverage is 10x the coverage of t-mobile(voicestream), which is why I think whoever your sales rep was might not know what he's talking about. They probably have the worst service of any national carrier, and the only reason they're even trying to get new subscribers is the fact they want to up the price when cingular (inevitably) buys them out.
well, i can answer the first question. scientists find planets by studying an effect called "red shift" in a star's motion in our sky. by studying this, we can determine if there is a planet acting with gravitational force on the star. Basically a star with a large enough planet orbiting around it will make the star appear to wobble. Unfortunately, this techinique is only useful for finding planets the size of jupiter (at least), because smaller planets don't "pull" on the star enough to cause a noticable wobble.