The idea that "if something is economically sound, it need not the support of politicians" is factually incorrect. Opium was freely traded with the Chinese who fought and lost two wars to prevent it. Arguably this mistreatment in the name of European profit led directly to the communist revolution. The Federal government maintained low interest rates for too long after the twin towers and allowed the global financial system to blow up in the name of good business. You and your family will be paying for this mistake in the name of profit for decades. The role of modern politicians should be to factor in the externalities to supposedly free markets - because the markets are broken and the profit motive alone will destroy us.
Global climate change has been investigated by an independent panel of scientists funded by the United Nations rather than people funded by industry or individual governments. They have not told us what to do, they just set out to the best of their analytical abilities what the consequences of various actions are predicted to be. They have made a few errors in specific predictions which are now being used as propaganda by the vested interests who may lose if we take action against climate change. This hasn't changed the overall conclusion and it is vital that the errors have been found and corrected, this is how science works.
Personally I am on the side of the precautionary principal and would rather our spare cash got spent on accelerating clean technology than wars over resources like oil. The only people likely to loose in this upgrade are the super rich who own the oil companies and are too lazy to get off their backsides and make money out of difficult techy stuff like renewable energy. If you want the world to be run by the super rich for the super rich then ignore climate change and I hope you and your offspring enjoy dying in your own effluvia.
Re:Fixing a problem for a person or a community?
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The Wi-Fi On the Bus
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· Score: 1
peer pressure is the answer and if the animals we pretend are young adults are all honing their skills on facebook being sociable and unsociable in an indirect way then its a good replacement for our Darwinian monkey learning school of biting kicking and scratching - abstraction is the key.
I agree Six Sigma is a fantastic tool. I used to work in the semiconductor industry and it rules. Six sigma is a concept though and entreprenurs providing the greatest toys have to rely on their suppliers having the deep implementation to provide the subsystems that they can then still put together credible products, often based on old fashioned 100% final QA without two sigma capability. I bet you my left foot that the iPad doesnt have 99.8% yield right now. Even more so I will bet you both arms and either foot that not every customer who wants one can get one by walking into a shop and buying one. No six sigma supply capability at launch eh? Doesnt mean that its not going to be a hugely sucessful product in the end (probably).
Six sigma is used by every industry in the world now, systems rely on the input hardware to be uniform because of this. Garbage in garbage out is the rule these days, hardware has to be capable. However all systems use software and software can never be fully tested for all use cases. So we have to rely on software updates to fix niggles and use cases that the desigers never thought of and tested for. Six sigma does not recognise this concept so its not universally applicable, it has its limitations.
I want to buy a washing machine right now but i am dispirited by the fact that its going to be a compromise piece of equipment, no updates, no cutting edge performance because its built for the average case (soft water, not hard where I live) and no improvements over its lifetime.
I'm still waiting for one of you clever entreprenurs to create the updateable washing machine to show that you can spot the next great business idea that we consumers will be knocked out by.
Western philosophy hasnt kept up, things were much better when the king was running things rather than prime time tv. The end is neigh crowd are right, only the end will be the Douglas Adams shoe event horizon. Expect China to be running civilization by the end of the century.
Peak oil will come, exactly when depends on the estimates of what is left to be found. A question akin to asking how long a piece of string is - it depends. Bush had several pressures on him to secure the Iraqi oil and deny it to Americas enemies, whatever the costs. One was the strong possibility that Iran would have another go at wiping out Saddam and taking it. Extension of American geopolitical power for another decade or so before the Chinese inevitably overtake. Finishing off the job his father had not been in a position to complete. Having an adventure, seriously I bet that if you could get Bush to be honest he would say that all of these were reasons for doing it.
The most overriding reason though seems to have been that the weapons inspectors were about to finish their job and give Saddam a clean bill of health. Saddam was about to get out of sanctions and back into free trade. For whatever reason Bush could not allow that to happen. So he ordered the weapons inspectors out and he and Blair lied to the people of the free world, claiming that they were going to take out Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. It was as obvious then as it is obvious now that the toe-rags were lying to us. At the time I attended street protests against the war in Stockholm Sweden where I happend to be working.
The biggest question of all really has to be why our elected representatives had to come up with a lie to take us to war with. It troubles me that no one sees fit to ask this question. The whole media furore seems to be over what monsters these people were for lying to us. What would be far more useful would be to know why they lied.
What is wrong with our society that we have to be lied to by our leaders? Ever since I have lost faith in democracy, it is almost a waste of time if we are being constantly lied to. Maybe the Chinese benign dictatorship will prove a more successful model by the end of this century. They certainly appear to be able to get their shit together over global warming much quicker than the democracies of the West. I am sure that they will have Thorium reactors before the US does, they will have them because they have a long term perspective that enables them to build diverse support systems and not to blindly rely on monopolistic capitalism.
The street protesters hate America with a passion, I dont think they see much difference between packs of meat in the supermarket chiller cabinet and an American, any American. But no I dont think they will blow up children, for a different reason. The war they are fighting is mostly about conquering the Muslim world, the attacks on the west are just propaganda for the hearts and minds of the radicalised youth. It works better if you avoid blowing up children because it is the children that you are after, so they blow up businessmen - evil by deffinition to children because none of them are businessmen. Its symbols of power that the terrorists want to destroy at the momment. Ironically if there were an Islamic caliphate they would exterminate Al Quaida pronto. Unfortunately there is not so this is going to carry on, at least until all the Muslims in the world are middle classed. Say for the next One hundred and fifty years.
By jingo, I never saw much point in pirating stuff before, but now that I will have to pay for anti piracy measures whether I what to or not - well I think its time I started getting my moneys worth.....
Thats the great thing about science, its not just the soundbite, its an onion with layer upon layer of history and undersanding that changes only slowly over a lifetime. So we see the sky with our eyes, we learn that radio waves are like light and we look at the sky with different wavelengths or frequencies of light and it looks different at different wavelengths, we see things near the Eagle nebula that we see with light at much longer infrared wavelengths through the Herschel telescope that we could never see with our own eyes because the dust hides the visible light. Its like a playstation, press the button and you play games, but tool up with the right software and you have the guts exposed through a command prompt. Beneath the simple view that the casual observer sees are layers of complication that are there for you to play with once you have understood what lies beneath the visible exterior. Herschel is no different to hacking your favourite appliance, inside a computing device and nearbye what we can see with our eyes are hidden depths which we can explore that are just as real as what we see at first glance but have the fascination of the hidden. Unlike science there are no hackers guides to politics philosophy and religion, if you could come up with one that lasted more than a momment it would be pretty handy, meanwhile hacking through science is deeply satifsying by comparison because it makes you feel like you are understanding the world. Try asking an Economist if they feel that they have a useful understanding of their field at the moment! Herschel is great because it encourages us to think that we might develop enough understanding to do stuff, something that is sadly lacking in some other learned disciplines. I say thats why even if we never go to the stars its worth learning about them - the process gives us hope that we can make things better closer to home. We have four years to learn how the solar system formed by looking at proto planetary systems in the Eagle nebula or the Orion nebula before the liquid helium runs out. Hurrah! for all the wonderful things we will discover.
Oh I agree that it is perfectly safe if you are aware of the dangers and the precautions that you should take. But this is a public forum where the caution is appropriate before the knowledgeble chip in with their experience and knowledge. So I agree with you, but did you mention that you have a personal checklist or mehod whereby you ensure your safety? Like do you remove the optical finder and replace it with a safe sunfinder before you slap on the filter, or that you pick up the filter and check it for pinholes every time before you attach it to the business end of your seriously good scope. Would I be wrong in assuming that you had a more than casual interest in observing with what could be an expensive instrument, most likely not your first. So I'm sorry if I came across with the grumpy sounding warning but I am sure that you would agree that a random post has to have a full exploration to make sure that its not taken at face value. Clear skies!
AstronomyCast doesnt quite hit it with me. Its hosted by two people who do the question and answer routine on a topic each week and I'd rather just hear one of them talk about the subject instead of one of them pretending to know nothing about the subject and asking questions. Its all a matter of taste but I find it a bit too packaged and distracting. Like it was trying to be a conversation but came out awkwardly like a script. The information is always top notch and interesting stuff but the style of the show is not my cup of tea. The Jodcast recently asked its listeners whether they wanted the "objects in the sky for the upcoming month" to be read as a question and answer thing and they voted for one person to talk about it. As I say its a matter of taste so I pointed out a couple of other shows, in case the one I wasn't so keen on, put people off podcasts - theres a big sky out there and there's lots of different podcasts too.
I could mention a few more in addition to AstronomyCast http://www.astronomycast.com/ top quality show with different subjects explored in depth with a teaching mission that will leave you much better informed than anything on tv ever will. The pedogogic style doesnt suit me but thats just my taste.
"Slacker Astronomy" http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/ Practising astronomers interviewed and in-depth subjects discussed by enthusiastic experts, they crack abysmal jokes about technical things which might seem a little silly (or incomprehensible) but the unscripted enthusiasm appeals to me.
The "Jodcast" http://www.jodcast.net/ Science staff from Manchester Universities Joderal Bank radio telescope bring us astronomy news, a themed mini drama, the night sky this month, topical discussion and an oft repeated desire for their theme tune to be redone in a heavy metal version. Well connected on Facebook et al, join in the fun.
there are
NASA Blueshift http://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/outreach/podcast/wordpress/ A bit slick the last time I listened, with soundbite interviews instead of a bit more detail from a single person. Most NASA stuff is a bit "wow look at that" without too much depth so I only come back to it infrequently. However it is probably perfect for the younger listener and they will probably be hooked by its friendliness.
"Astronomy a Go Go" http://astronomy.libsyn.com/ is the best observing podcast on the net bar none with Alice Few. It may prove a little intimidating to newcomers but the website is also the best general resource for amateur astronomers who want to do observing IMHO. Alice is so thorough and easy on the ear that you could easily play this one three or four times to get yourself fully up to speed on what might be worth doing in the coming month with your observing time. Solid gold this one.
Planetary Radio http://www.planetary.org/radio/ from the Planetary Society is great if you are into rockets and the exploration of the solar system as opposed to deep space. Always an interesting listen with news features, an opinion spot from the self styled "Bill Nye the planetary guy" and loads of enthusiasm for exploring.
365 days of astronomy http://365daysofastronomy.org/ has a few days left to run with a choice of 365 short programs from this The year of Astronomy - The ones from this year best heard now by browsing through the programs to find ones on subjects you are interested in, but the good news is that they are set to carry on with their volunteer generated 5 to 10 minute programs in 2010. Head on over and make a program for them yourself!
Please do not suggest looking at the Sun through a telescope even as a joke, it will blind you. You can buy special filters to put over the end of a telescope at the opposite end to the one you look through, which can make a telescope safe to use. But you had better know what you are doing because even a pin hole in the filter will let in so much light that you will blind yourself. If you have ever seen someone set fire to something with a magnifying glass then you should be pretty wary of putting anything glass between your eyes and the sun. I have been using a telescope to look at the night skies for years and have not yet got around to looking at the sun with anything more than a pinbox because of the danger, I'll keep my eyes safe thanks:-)
This is not a case of "ooh you had better wear a crash helmet in case you fall off your bike". You only occasionally fall off your bike. If you look at the sun through a telescope or binoculars it will blind you - first time, every time. This is why a pinhole box is so cool because you can see something that is literally dangerous to do any other way.
For a small telescope - say 1.5 to 2 inches and 10 to 100x magnification. The double cluster in Perseus - its below Cassiopeia the W thing and looks like two balls of stars, very pretty at low magnification. The Orion nebula - often called the Sword of Orion, its below the three stars of his belt and is a ghostly greenish mist that you need to zoom a bit more in to see. Dont forget to look at the moon, especially when you can see less than the full moon because the mountains and craters along the line of the shadow look really three dimensional, you can crank the magnification up as far as you like on these, bearing in mind that you have to follow the thing across the sky. Take a look at the website of magazines like Sky and Telescope or Astronomy for more info on what to look at and what it is you are seeing. The Orion Nebula for example is the nearest stellar nursery where new stars are being born. If you want to see pictures of the quality that Herschel produces then download the APOD or Astronomy Picture Of the Day application for a new one each day on your desk top - or go staight to the APOD website which google will find for you.
I'm not sure a tzar helps. The people on the front line are independant businesses selling cyber security and the military. The two do not meet openly so the position is merely cerimonial.
They can do what they like so long as we can overide it. As well as headphone sensitivity there is the irritation of lack of drive for docking bases and the obligatory regulation industry that will be their choice implementation strategy. Its a pity they couldnt regulate the finance industry that has put so many people out of work. Still at least these useless bureaucrats are guarnteed a lifetime of employment followed by fat pensions payed for by my taxes.
Thanks for the summary. I take it that the businesses are determined to screw the blind. Its foolish business like this that make it certain that we need state regulation to protect the disadvantaged. Anyone care to explain why its a good idea to screw over blind people? Is it to get me to vote for the state to regulate everything because its obvious that business has no sense of responsibility at all and is greedy enough to kill the planet, pitchfork babies, mutate the unborn and generally treat us all like shit so long as they can screw money out of us? No wonder capitalism is fucked. We may as well have sharia law for all the good democracy is doing us. The west is begining to look like a philosophical dead end. 400 years from enlightenment to irrelevance. Oh I dont like the faults of the welfare state or centralaly directed social reform, but I didnt like the Third Reich disposing of cripples either. Surely we can do better than this?
Re:Oh thats why its been a downhill slope with /.
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Slashdot Turns 100,000
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Awesome! or happy 100k. keep up the good work, I cant get such a good argument for free anywhere else.
You havent reached whatever comes after middle age then. I have trouble splitting them in a city now, but cant tell whether its because of the city lights or because my eyes are shot. They look great through a 10" dobsonian in any case:-)
Its an interesting question as to whether intelligent life is an oxymoron. We are animals that got smart and developed the ability to consume our resources faster than any animal instinct could ever comprehend and compensate for. Our politics and philosophy is centuries out of kilter with our ability to use stuff up. The deafening silence from SETI research indicates that there are no planet based super advanced civilizations, the question is could any inteligent life form develop a society capable of moderating its animal insticts to consume fast enough to save the ecosystem that created them? I wonder, it looks unlikely given the question we are discussing. Logic is not part of our self organisation, we reject it in favour of the basic driving forces that created us.
It is possible that dance music on Vinyl has been mastered with the intention of making it sound good on large sound systems used in Clubs, and may ironically have better dynamics than the "Radio mix" that ends up on peoples MP3 players. There is no shortage of dynamic range on a good sound system and a dance anthem wouldn't be an anthem unless it had dynamics.
Greed as usual defines what we will support. But hang on a minute, in the west we have become blind to the economic model we live with. Producing something has become so cheap that it comprises less than 20% of what you as a consumer end up paying for it. If protecting the life of your offspring is going to increase the fundamental cost of a thing by 5% for a couple of decades then I think we should be looking at that 80% of the cost of a product to find the savings to pay for the change. Ask yourself if the way our businesses operate today that they cant find 5% of their methods to save the planet and the story looks different. All it requires is that we invest in new technology instead of sticking with old models of business rather faster than the old busineses would like. Can I put up with a 5% decrease in my pension when the recent collapse of the world economic system has reduced my pension by 50%? What planet are you people living on if you belive that existing business models are going to look after you after they have so resoundingly failed us? We can fix the planet at almost no personal cost and you hold out against it because you trust the bankers and their failed economic system, the data says you are crazy. Lets start a new boom based on climate change technology, wake up and stop listening to those who have failed us.
If you would care to be informed about climate change science try typing this search in youtube - go for the >20 minute option if you can handle more than soundbites - climate change berkeley - or any of the great universities in the US. Then watch a dozen or so different lectures and tell me if the precautionary principle doesnt say to you that its a fair bet that if we do nothing at all then there is a non zero chance that we are headed the same way Venus went. Its your choice and as I have no children and think the universe is sufficiently magnificant to exist without human life in it and still be just fabulous (but I feel a little sad that intelligent life appears to be heading towards the status of being an oxymoron) that just maybe we ought to use our fabulous science and technology to stop dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Heck with the economy in the dodgy state its in the spend on all that low carbon stuff should kick off a revival in advanced economies anyway.
It also explains why there are no signs of super civilizations out there. Basically organic life is too stupid to stop population growth before it destroys its environment. I'm glad I lived in the last century before the human race realized that it was going to die out because of the inbuilt greed of our genes which multiplied by our intelligence guarantee our extinction.
So long and thanks for all the fish, I'm out of here.
Slashdot Mirror
I have just got to get myself a stylophone.. :-)
The idea that "if something is economically sound, it need not the support of politicians" is factually incorrect. Opium was freely traded with the Chinese who fought and lost two wars to prevent it. Arguably this mistreatment in the name of European profit led directly to the communist revolution. The Federal government maintained low interest rates for too long after the twin towers and allowed the global financial system to blow up in the name of good business. You and your family will be paying for this mistake in the name of profit for decades. The role of modern politicians should be to factor in the externalities to supposedly free markets - because the markets are broken and the profit motive alone will destroy us.
Global climate change has been investigated by an independent panel of scientists funded by the United Nations rather than people funded by industry or individual governments. They have not told us what to do, they just set out to the best of their analytical abilities what the consequences of various actions are predicted to be. They have made a few errors in specific predictions which are now being used as propaganda by the vested interests who may lose if we take action against climate change. This hasn't changed the overall conclusion and it is vital that the errors have been found and corrected, this is how science works.
Personally I am on the side of the precautionary principal and would rather our spare cash got spent on accelerating clean technology than wars over resources like oil. The only people likely to loose in this upgrade are the super rich who own the oil companies and are too lazy to get off their backsides and make money out of difficult techy stuff like renewable energy. If you want the world to be run by the super rich for the super rich then ignore climate change and I hope you and your offspring enjoy dying in your own effluvia.
peer pressure is the answer and if the animals we pretend are young adults are all honing their skills on facebook being sociable and unsociable in an indirect way then its a good replacement for our Darwinian monkey learning school of biting kicking and scratching - abstraction is the key.
I agree Six Sigma is a fantastic tool. I used to work in the semiconductor industry and it rules. Six sigma is a concept though and entreprenurs providing the greatest toys have to rely on their suppliers having the deep implementation to provide the subsystems that they can then still put together credible products, often based on old fashioned 100% final QA without two sigma capability. I bet you my left foot that the iPad doesnt have 99.8% yield right now. Even more so I will bet you both arms and either foot that not every customer who wants one can get one by walking into a shop and buying one. No six sigma supply capability at launch eh? Doesnt mean that its not going to be a hugely sucessful product in the end (probably).
Six sigma is used by every industry in the world now, systems rely on the input hardware to be uniform because of this. Garbage in garbage out is the rule these days, hardware has to be capable. However all systems use software and software can never be fully tested for all use cases. So we have to rely on software updates to fix niggles and use cases that the desigers never thought of and tested for. Six sigma does not recognise this concept so its not universally applicable, it has its limitations.
I want to buy a washing machine right now but i am dispirited by the fact that its going to be a compromise piece of equipment, no updates, no cutting edge performance because its built for the average case (soft water, not hard where I live) and no improvements over its lifetime.
I'm still waiting for one of you clever entreprenurs to create the updateable washing machine to show that you can spot the next great business idea that we consumers will be knocked out by.
Western philosophy hasnt kept up, things were much better when the king was running things rather than prime time tv. The end is neigh crowd are right, only the end will be the Douglas Adams shoe event horizon. Expect China to be running civilization by the end of the century.
Peak oil will come, exactly when depends on the estimates of what is left to be found. A question akin to asking how long a piece of string is - it depends. Bush had several pressures on him to secure the Iraqi oil and deny it to Americas enemies, whatever the costs. One was the strong possibility that Iran would have another go at wiping out Saddam and taking it. Extension of American geopolitical power for another decade or so before the Chinese inevitably overtake. Finishing off the job his father had not been in a position to complete. Having an adventure, seriously I bet that if you could get Bush to be honest he would say that all of these were reasons for doing it.
The most overriding reason though seems to have been that the weapons inspectors were about to finish their job and give Saddam a clean bill of health. Saddam was about to get out of sanctions and back into free trade. For whatever reason Bush could not allow that to happen. So he ordered the weapons inspectors out and he and Blair lied to the people of the free world, claiming that they were going to take out Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. It was as obvious then as it is obvious now that the toe-rags were lying to us. At the time I attended street protests against the war in Stockholm Sweden where I happend to be working.
The biggest question of all really has to be why our elected representatives had to come up with a lie to take us to war with. It troubles me that no one sees fit to ask this question. The whole media furore seems to be over what monsters these people were for lying to us. What would be far more useful would be to know why they lied.
What is wrong with our society that we have to be lied to by our leaders? Ever since I have lost faith in democracy, it is almost a waste of time if we are being constantly lied to. Maybe the Chinese benign dictatorship will prove a more successful model by the end of this century. They certainly appear to be able to get their shit together over global warming much quicker than the democracies of the West. I am sure that they will have Thorium reactors before the US does, they will have them because they have a long term perspective that enables them to build diverse support systems and not to blindly rely on monopolistic capitalism.
The street protesters hate America with a passion, I dont think they see much difference between packs of meat in the supermarket chiller cabinet and an American, any American. But no I dont think they will blow up children, for a different reason. The war they are fighting is mostly about conquering the Muslim world, the attacks on the west are just propaganda for the hearts and minds of the radicalised youth. It works better if you avoid blowing up children because it is the children that you are after, so they blow up businessmen - evil by deffinition to children because none of them are businessmen. Its symbols of power that the terrorists want to destroy at the momment. Ironically if there were an Islamic caliphate they would exterminate Al Quaida pronto. Unfortunately there is not so this is going to carry on, at least until all the Muslims in the world are middle classed. Say for the next One hundred and fifty years.
By jingo, I never saw much point in pirating stuff before, but now that I will have to pay for anti piracy measures whether I what to or not - well I think its time I started getting my moneys worth.....
Thats the great thing about science, its not just the soundbite, its an onion with layer upon layer of history and undersanding that changes only slowly over a lifetime. So we see the sky with our eyes, we learn that radio waves are like light and we look at the sky with different wavelengths or frequencies of light and it looks different at different wavelengths, we see things near the Eagle nebula that we see with light at much longer infrared wavelengths through the Herschel telescope that we could never see with our own eyes because the dust hides the visible light. Its like a playstation, press the button and you play games, but tool up with the right software and you have the guts exposed through a command prompt. Beneath the simple view that the casual observer sees are layers of complication that are there for you to play with once you have understood what lies beneath the visible exterior. Herschel is no different to hacking your favourite appliance, inside a computing device and nearbye what we can see with our eyes are hidden depths which we can explore that are just as real as what we see at first glance but have the fascination of the hidden. Unlike science there are no hackers guides to politics philosophy and religion, if you could come up with one that lasted more than a momment it would be pretty handy, meanwhile hacking through science is deeply satifsying by comparison because it makes you feel like you are understanding the world. Try asking an Economist if they feel that they have a useful understanding of their field at the moment! Herschel is great because it encourages us to think that we might develop enough understanding to do stuff, something that is sadly lacking in some other learned disciplines. I say thats why even if we never go to the stars its worth learning about them - the process gives us hope that we can make things better closer to home. We have four years to learn how the solar system formed by looking at proto planetary systems in the Eagle nebula or the Orion nebula before the liquid helium runs out. Hurrah! for all the wonderful things we will discover.
Oh I agree that it is perfectly safe if you are aware of the dangers and the precautions that you should take. But this is a public forum where the caution is appropriate before the knowledgeble chip in with their experience and knowledge. So I agree with you, but did you mention that you have a personal checklist or mehod whereby you ensure your safety? Like do you remove the optical finder and replace it with a safe sunfinder before you slap on the filter, or that you pick up the filter and check it for pinholes every time before you attach it to the business end of your seriously good scope. Would I be wrong in assuming that you had a more than casual interest in observing with what could be an expensive instrument, most likely not your first. So I'm sorry if I came across with the grumpy sounding warning but I am sure that you would agree that a random post has to have a full exploration to make sure that its not taken at face value. Clear skies!
AstronomyCast doesnt quite hit it with me. Its hosted by two people who do the question and answer routine on a topic each week and I'd rather just hear one of them talk about the subject instead of one of them pretending to know nothing about the subject and asking questions. Its all a matter of taste but I find it a bit too packaged and distracting. Like it was trying to be a conversation but came out awkwardly like a script. The information is always top notch and interesting stuff but the style of the show is not my cup of tea. The Jodcast recently asked its listeners whether they wanted the "objects in the sky for the upcoming month" to be read as a question and answer thing and they voted for one person to talk about it. As I say its a matter of taste so I pointed out a couple of other shows, in case the one I wasn't so keen on, put people off podcasts - theres a big sky out there and there's lots of different podcasts too.
I could mention a few more in addition to
AstronomyCast http://www.astronomycast.com/ top quality show with different subjects explored in depth with a teaching mission that will leave you much better informed than anything on tv ever will. The pedogogic style doesnt suit me but thats just my taste.
"Slacker Astronomy" http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/ Practising astronomers interviewed and in-depth subjects discussed by enthusiastic experts, they crack abysmal jokes about technical things which might seem a little silly (or incomprehensible) but the unscripted enthusiasm appeals to me.
The "Jodcast" http://www.jodcast.net/ Science staff from Manchester Universities Joderal Bank radio telescope bring us astronomy news, a themed mini drama, the night sky this month, topical discussion and an oft repeated desire for their theme tune to be redone in a heavy metal version. Well connected on Facebook et al, join in the fun.
there are
NASA Blueshift http://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/outreach/podcast/wordpress/ A bit slick the last time I listened, with soundbite interviews instead of a bit more detail from a single person. Most NASA stuff is a bit "wow look at that" without too much depth so I only come back to it infrequently. However it is probably perfect for the younger listener and they will probably be hooked by its friendliness.
"Astronomy a Go Go" http://astronomy.libsyn.com/ is the best observing podcast on the net bar none with Alice Few. It may prove a little intimidating to newcomers but the website is also the best general resource for amateur astronomers who want to do observing IMHO. Alice is so thorough and easy on the ear that you could easily play this one three or four times to get yourself fully up to speed on what might be worth doing in the coming month with your observing time. Solid gold this one.
Planetary Radio http://www.planetary.org/radio/ from the Planetary Society is great if you are into rockets and the exploration of the solar system as opposed to deep space. Always an interesting listen with news features, an opinion spot from the self styled "Bill Nye the planetary guy" and loads of enthusiasm for exploring.
365 days of astronomy http://365daysofastronomy.org/ has a few days left to run with a choice of 365 short programs from this The year of Astronomy - The ones from this year best heard now by browsing through the programs to find ones on subjects you are interested in, but the good news is that they are set to carry on with their volunteer generated 5 to 10 minute programs in 2010. Head on over and make a program for them yourself!
The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures http://www.astroso
Please do not suggest looking at the Sun through a telescope even as a joke, it will blind you. You can buy special filters to put over the end of a telescope at the opposite end to the one you look through, which can make a telescope safe to use. But you had better know what you are doing because even a pin hole in the filter will let in so much light that you will blind yourself. If you have ever seen someone set fire to something with a magnifying glass then you should be pretty wary of putting anything glass between your eyes and the sun. I have been using a telescope to look at the night skies for years and have not yet got around to looking at the sun with anything more than a pinbox because of the danger, I'll keep my eyes safe thanks :-)
This is not a case of "ooh you had better wear a crash helmet in case you fall off your bike". You only occasionally fall off your bike. If you look at the sun through a telescope or binoculars it will blind you - first time, every time. This is why a pinhole box is so cool because you can see something that is literally dangerous to do any other way.
And for extra podcast enjoyment look out for "Slacker Astronomy" http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpress/ and The "Jodcast" http://www.jodcast.net/ with added astronomer humor. I find AstronomyCast http://www.astronomycast.com/ a little bit too greasy and slick myself, but all three podcasts are chock full of interesting information.
For a small telescope - say 1.5 to 2 inches and 10 to 100x magnification. The double cluster in Perseus - its below Cassiopeia the W thing and looks like two balls of stars, very pretty at low magnification. The Orion nebula - often called the Sword of Orion, its below the three stars of his belt and is a ghostly greenish mist that you need to zoom a bit more in to see. Dont forget to look at the moon, especially when you can see less than the full moon because the mountains and craters along the line of the shadow look really three dimensional, you can crank the magnification up as far as you like on these, bearing in mind that you have to follow the thing across the sky. Take a look at the website of magazines like Sky and Telescope or Astronomy for more info on what to look at and what it is you are seeing. The Orion Nebula for example is the nearest stellar nursery where new stars are being born. If you want to see pictures of the quality that Herschel produces then download the APOD or Astronomy Picture Of the Day application for a new one each day on your desk top - or go staight to the APOD website which google will find for you.
I'm not sure a tzar helps. The people on the front line are independant businesses selling cyber security and the military. The two do not meet openly so the position is merely cerimonial.
They can do what they like so long as we can overide it. As well as headphone sensitivity there is the irritation of lack of drive for docking bases and the obligatory regulation industry that will be their choice implementation strategy. Its a pity they couldnt regulate the finance industry that has put so many people out of work. Still at least these useless bureaucrats are guarnteed a lifetime of employment followed by fat pensions payed for by my taxes.
Thanks for the summary. I take it that the businesses are determined to screw the blind. Its foolish business like this that make it certain that we need state regulation to protect the disadvantaged. Anyone care to explain why its a good idea to screw over blind people? Is it to get me to vote for the state to regulate everything because its obvious that business has no sense of responsibility at all and is greedy enough to kill the planet, pitchfork babies, mutate the unborn and generally treat us all like shit so long as they can screw money out of us? No wonder capitalism is fucked. We may as well have sharia law for all the good democracy is doing us. The west is begining to look like a philosophical dead end. 400 years from enlightenment to irrelevance. Oh I dont like the faults of the welfare state or centralaly directed social reform, but I didnt like the Third Reich disposing of cripples either. Surely we can do better than this?
Awesome! or happy 100k. keep up the good work, I cant get such a good argument for free anywhere else.
You havent reached whatever comes after middle age then. I have trouble splitting them in a city now, but cant tell whether its because of the city lights or because my eyes are shot. They look great through a 10" dobsonian in any case :-)
Its an interesting question as to whether intelligent life is an oxymoron. We are animals that got smart and developed the ability to consume our resources faster than any animal instinct could ever comprehend and compensate for. Our politics and philosophy is centuries out of kilter with our ability to use stuff up. The deafening silence from SETI research indicates that there are no planet based super advanced civilizations, the question is could any inteligent life form develop a society capable of moderating its animal insticts to consume fast enough to save the ecosystem that created them? I wonder, it looks unlikely given the question we are discussing. Logic is not part of our self organisation, we reject it in favour of the basic driving forces that created us.
It is possible that dance music on Vinyl has been mastered with the intention of making it sound good on large sound systems used in Clubs, and may ironically have better dynamics than the "Radio mix" that ends up on peoples MP3 players. There is no shortage of dynamic range on a good sound system and a dance anthem wouldn't be an anthem unless it had dynamics.
Greed as usual defines what we will support. But hang on a minute, in the west we have become blind to the economic model we live with. Producing something has become so cheap that it comprises less than 20% of what you as a consumer end up paying for it. If protecting the life of your offspring is going to increase the fundamental cost of a thing by 5% for a couple of decades then I think we should be looking at that 80% of the cost of a product to find the savings to pay for the change. Ask yourself if the way our businesses operate today that they cant find 5% of their methods to save the planet and the story looks different. All it requires is that we invest in new technology instead of sticking with old models of business rather faster than the old busineses would like. Can I put up with a 5% decrease in my pension when the recent collapse of the world economic system has reduced my pension by 50%? What planet are you people living on if you belive that existing business models are going to look after you after they have so resoundingly failed us? We can fix the planet at almost no personal cost and you hold out against it because you trust the bankers and their failed economic system, the data says you are crazy. Lets start a new boom based on climate change technology, wake up and stop listening to those who have failed us.
There is, google ciss - continious ink suply system
If you would care to be informed about climate change science try typing this search in youtube - go for the >20 minute option if you can handle more than soundbites - climate change berkeley - or any of the great universities in the US. Then watch a dozen or so different lectures and tell me if the precautionary principle doesnt say to you that its a fair bet that if we do nothing at all then there is a non zero chance that we are headed the same way Venus went. Its your choice and as I have no children and think the universe is sufficiently magnificant to exist without human life in it and still be just fabulous (but I feel a little sad that intelligent life appears to be heading towards the status of being an oxymoron) that just maybe we ought to use our fabulous science and technology to stop dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Heck with the economy in the dodgy state its in the spend on all that low carbon stuff should kick off a revival in advanced economies anyway.
Hey dude its your choice.
It also explains why there are no signs of super civilizations out there. Basically organic life is too stupid to stop population growth before it destroys its environment. I'm glad I lived in the last century before the human race realized that it was going to die out because of the inbuilt greed of our genes which multiplied by our intelligence guarantee our extinction.
So long and thanks for all the fish, I'm out of here.