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User: SEWilco

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  1. Re:Questionable science in questionable environeme on Science Fair Exhibits: Fair Game For Censorship · · Score: 1

    Sounds like someone should do a project involving a survey of the math skills of teachers.

  2. First Segregation on Science Fair Exhibits: Fair Game For Censorship · · Score: 1
    Later, the director of elementary education argued, "A science fair is not the way we choose to discuss race relations.

    So they choose to segregate race relations discussions. These discussions are different from other discussions and need special controls?

    Are they also using only American recipes in cooking exercises, so as to not make French or non-French students uncomfortable? For that matter, don't French language classes make the non-French-speakers uncomfortable?

  3. Typo Corrected on Robot Positioning Systems? · · Score: 2
  4. Linkathon on Robot Positioning Systems? · · Score: 2
  5. Re:Just use your eyes, and don't void your insuran on Robot Positioning Systems? · · Score: 1
    Right. The most common robot mowing mechanism is a spinning disk with small spring-loaded hobby knife blades sticking out; a shoe gives it a lot of trouble. Or the weed trimmer design of a spinning string.

    If you want, you could put tiny arms holding tiny tweezers and cut the grass by tearing out six bites from each blade of grass...

  6. Deorbiting Tether on Is Space Junk Still A Problem? · · Score: 2

    Make sure you equip your next satellite with a Termination Tether. It won't work in geosynchronous orbit, but you'll be moving your bird out of the slot with the last of its fuel anyway.

  7. Re:Very much so! on Is Space Junk Still A Problem? · · Score: 2
    "Satelites in more distant orbits may or may not destabilize."

    If the bird isn't near Earth-Moon Lagrange points 1-5, it is not a stable orbit. Try a search for "Lagrange L5" or "Lagrange trojan points".

  8. Interesting...Not on Is Space Junk Still A Problem? · · Score: 1
    Nice ideas, but the real junk is in the real world. Our satellites are in close Earth orbit and are being slowed down by the top of our atmosphere, magnetic fields are affecting ferrous and electrically conductive pieces, the Moon's (and Sun's) gravity is wriggling everything which isn't near Earth-Moon L1, photon pressure (sunlight pushes things), and the Solar wind.

    The only stuff that will stay in orbit for tens of thousands of years are the asteroids that we move nearby.

  9. Klingon Evolution? on New 'Star Trek' Series Set For Fall · · Score: 2

    If a series does take place before TNG period, the first question has to be: What do Klingons look like during this period?

  10. Linux Filtering on Open Source Filtering? · · Score: 1
    Actually, there are a number of HTML proxy filters. Start with the list in Freshmeat Old Appindex :: Daemons :: Proxy. In addition to the content filters which are already there, notice that the banner filter technology can also be used to filter other things.

    Linux firewalling also allows user-level filters -- packets can be directed to programs for filtering.

  11. Thanks, AOL. on Make Your Own Vacuum-Formed Storm Trooper Armor · · Score: 1

    Oh, good, another use for AOL CDs.

  12. Happy Easter! on Guess When Mir Will Splash · · Score: 2
    2001-03-28 12:34:56

    Unfortunately, "between New Zealand and Chile" is where Easter Island is. Anyone put pillows on the Heads?

  13. Re:Why? on Trademarks For Open Source Projects? · · Score: 1

    Look up the meanings of "trade" and "commerce". Then you'll understand better what a trade-mark is.

  14. Re:Magazines should provide digital versions on High Speed Text To Digital Aquisition? · · Score: 1

    Some magazines do this. Science is a high-visibility example. Free access to digital articles for subscribers, and others can purchase on-line access.

  15. SlashMoron on Documents Reveal Rambus' Patent-Enforcement Plans · · Score: 1
    "Documents Reveal Rambus? Patent-Enforcement Plans"

    Now if Slashcode could do something when moronic characters are present...

  16. Re:Stop screwing around with nature! Gah. on Bacteria to Destroy Greenhouse Gases · · Score: 2

    Let's remember the complaints about sea levels rising that have been coming from South Pacific islands. If you look at Scientific American, March 2001, pg 47, note the comment about Bond/Lighgow-Bertelloni studing the sinking of the Indonesian area. Gee, if you're on an island which is sinking...of course the water level gets higher. Oddly, the IPCC estimates of "sea level rising" think that this area will have less sea level rise than the geology indicates.

  17. Re:Finally! on Appeals Court Puts Amazon 1-Click Patent in Question · · Score: 2

    To quote Kermit the Frog: "Yaaaaaay!"

  18. Re:Why not just be a parasite?! on NEAR to Fly Once More · · Score: 1

    So you're proposing using it as the first asteroid-based observatory. Unfortunately it won't work in this case. Eros is spinning and yawing like a tossed shoe, so the antenna dish rarely points at Earth -- it would be hard to send any images back. Also, the cameras don't have the wonderful stargazing lenses of Hubble, and even if they did they're not on a stable platform so only the brightest objects are briefly visible. And the probe itself won't survive long; three months is the estimate.

  19. Re:Next on NEAR to Fly Once More · · Score: 1

    NEAR is presently 16 light-minutes away, which is way too far for the TCP/IP limit. The Moon is only 1.5 seconds away (3 second round-trip), so TCP/IP can work.

  20. Re:Huh? on Superconducting Cables To Carry Power In Detroit · · Score: 1

    "High temperatures", like 22 degrees C? I don't think so. Not that high yet.

  21. Thinkpad shopper hopes... on IBM Releases GPLd WinModem Support For Linux · · Score: 1

    I hope they'll avoid closed hardware in the future. I made sure to not get a Thinkpad last time I was shopping due to the MWave problems. (Yes, it was for Linux use. I bought a new Toshiba laptop and reformatted the disk for Red Hat.)

  22. Monster Crystals on World's Largest Crystals · · Score: 1

    Aren't you thinking of "The Monolith Monsters"?

  23. Disturbing on World's Largest Crystals · · Score: 1

    I sense a great disturbance in the Force...

  24. Foam & Pillows on Cool Packaging Ideas? · · Score: 1

    My two favorite packaging methods are injected foam and inflated pillows. In the former, the object is wrappen in plastic and put in a box on a foam pedestal, with a couple of plastic sheets which divide the box into sections; foam is injected into both sections and this shapes to fit around the object perfectly -- the plastic-separated sections allow the foam to be opened. In the latter, the object is put in a pouch in what looks like a plastic bag; when the "bag" is inflated, it forms a pillow entirely surrounding the object and suspending it within the cardboard box.

  25. Re:During Flights? on Stimulating Bone Growth In Astronauts · · Score: 1

    Yes. But there may be other solutions than the rotating-couplings problems. I was thinking outside the sealed and pressurized box.