A Dutch electronics magazine does (used to do?) the same, no August issue. Instead, they would send out an extra big July issue, and every year that issue would have a collection of 100 small(ish) projects to build. I used to buy it semi-regularly, depending on the articles. When my interest in electronics started to wane I stopped buying the magazine, except in July. After a couple of years even that stopped, but by then computers had become the "in" thing:)
The huge solar flare of last year gave a nice example of that. Its passing was noted by Cassini and other spacecraft, and it significantly slowed down the farther out from the sun it travelled.
Hmm.. i just watched Red Planet, Mission to Mars, and Space Cowboys. AFAIK all of those movies were denounced here because of bad physics. I saw the movies, noticed the bad physics, grinned because I knew they made for a better story, and enjoyed the movies.
Same goes for series re-runs. Don't theorize it to death, just sit and watch it. Grin at plotholes and physics violations. Just try to enjoy something for once instead of trying to debunk every small or big goof in it.
Ok this has no bearing on the post I replied to. Just glad to get it off my chest:)
And then there's this guy I kinda know online, how capitalizes every word He deems Important To Understand the topic is Writing about Faster! Confusing as hell...
Well, what a big part of their market used to be was smaller companies. UnixWare isn't a crap OS. I wouldn't call it good either, but for a long time it was a nice option for small budget companies. And then Linux happened:)
Choice quote from the previous vice president of our IT company (about 5 or 6 years ago): "Linux? We won't spend time and energy on that, it is just a hype"
The faq briefly mentions cost as an issue. MESSENGER is a member of NASA's Discovery Program of lower cost, highly focused missions. Adding a lot of fuel would not be too expensive by itself, but then a lot bigger (and more expensive) launch vehicle would be needed, and that would be outside the scope of the Discovery Program. That is the explanation that was given on some other website, sorry, no link.
Possible launch in 2008 or 2009. The idea is to build a sistership to the Pluto New Horizons mission, maybe adding some new instrumentation. But AFAICT this is just speculation, and not actually a planned mission (yet). Even New Horizons itself could still be axed to free funds for the Moon/Mars stuff.
Depressing.. but look around. School tests are already being re-evaluated because not enough kids make the grade... Didn't Heinlein predict something like this?
It wouldn not even be surprising if this "army mechanic" would be a spook trying to make the "enemy" waste money on ineffective ammunition, by getting them to believe that certain improvements were not made. Would give a new meaning to the word "astroturfing".
"The bacteria were definitely not introduced from above'."
what's this crap remark doing on it?
Oh.. I finally get to say it: RTFA! (I know, I know, I'm not new here.. but it's such an irresistable acronym) It's an overly dramatic way of saying that the bacteria found did actually exist underneath the glacier, and were not introduced by contamination of the samples. That's all, nothing to see here, move along. And, AFAIK, Lake Vostok has not been sampled yet.
"Loose sand fragments were transported by wind, and impacted on the bedrock, slowly removing parts of the surface, like a sand-blaster. If the winds blow in the same direction for a long enough period, 'wind-lanes', as shown in the picture, can occur."
So probably no water involved in the creating this beautiful piece of Martian surface.
I wouldn't call it off-topic. For the clueless that already moderated it as such, this refers to a post in the previous SCO/Groklaw story. You know, the good one, with the judge throwing them and their little dog out of court and all. I'll take the potential karma hit and spoonyfork's wrath for pointing this out:)
Ironically, there are portions of the moon that are never exposed to the sun:) Granted, they are small areas in craters near the poles, but still.. the interesting aspect of that is that there might be ice in those spots. Very convenient for future manned moon missions. I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that some peaks near the poles are always exposed to the sun but I'm probably wrong on that one.
Alright, even though earlier in the article other forces are named as the main actors on Oort Cloud comets. I read the part that you quote as "once the comet is nudged towards the sun, the bigger planets can then influence the orbits so they become shorter".
Why do I still doubt it? Jupiter mass is only 0.001 solar mass, Oort cloud distance is in the order of magnitude of 100,000 AU, gravity influence decreases with distance squared, and comets are small.
But hey, the Oort Cloud has not even been proven to exist so why are we bickering?:)
I seriously doubt that the gravitational forces of the outer planets have any influence whatsoever on the Oort cloud. I think that with the distances involved even the gravity of Jupiter would be negligible compared to the Sun's. Of course IANA astronomer, anyone care to provide some calculations?
Oh, and the other one is called the Kuiper Belt. How did that 'n' ever sneak up there?:)
"The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal is a record of the lunar surface operations conducted by the six pairs of astronauts who landed on the Moon from 1969 through 1972. The Journal is intended as a resource for anyone wanting to know what happened during the missions and why. It includes a corrected transcript of all recorded conversations between the lunar surface crews and Houston. The Journal also contains extensive, interwoven commentary by the Editor and by ten of the twelve moonwalking astronauts."
Slashdot Mirror
A Dutch electronics magazine does (used to do?) the same, no August issue. Instead, they would send out an extra big July issue, and every year that issue would have a collection of 100 small(ish) projects to build. I used to buy it semi-regularly, depending on the articles. When my interest in electronics started to wane I stopped buying the magazine, except in July. After a couple of years even that stopped, but by then computers had become the "in" thing :)
Duh.. Natalie Portman.. Hot grits... oh never mind :)
Posting without spelling mistakes makes you insightful regardless of facts :)
The huge solar flare of last year gave a nice example of that. Its passing was noted by Cassini and other spacecraft, and it significantly slowed down the farther out from the sun it travelled.
Same goes for series re-runs. Don't theorize it to death, just sit and watch it. Grin at plotholes and physics violations. Just try to enjoy something for once instead of trying to debunk every small or big goof in it.
Ok this has no bearing on the post I replied to. Just glad to get it off my chest :)
Bring back Buck Rogers!
I fully agree with what you said though. Just funny how you took the bait :p
And then there's this guy I kinda know online, how capitalizes every word He deems Important To Understand the topic is Writing about Faster! Confusing as hell...
Anybody know how our product is better then any Unix flavor or Linux... in Japan!
Choice quote from the previous vice president of our IT company (about 5 or 6 years ago): "Linux? We won't spend time and energy on that, it is just a hype"
The faq briefly mentions cost as an issue. MESSENGER is a member of NASA's Discovery Program of lower cost, highly focused missions. Adding a lot of fuel would not be too expensive by itself, but then a lot bigger (and more expensive) launch vehicle would be needed, and that would be outside the scope of the Discovery Program. That is the explanation that was given on some other website, sorry, no link.
I would consider that under par for the avarage /. poster, especially on space articles.
But he only does that 3 weeks per year, in France even ;)
Possible launch in 2008 or 2009. The idea is to build a sistership to the Pluto New Horizons mission, maybe adding some new instrumentation. But AFAICT this is just speculation, and not actually a planned mission (yet). Even New Horizons itself could still be axed to free funds for the Moon/Mars stuff.
Depressing.. but look around. School tests are already being re-evaluated because not enough kids make the grade... Didn't Heinlein predict something like this?
It wouldn not even be surprising if this "army mechanic" would be a spook trying to make the "enemy" waste money on ineffective ammunition, by getting them to believe that certain improvements were not made. Would give a new meaning to the word "astroturfing".
I had a usa.net account, and now all I have is this lousy t-shirt...
what's this crap remark doing on it?
Oh.. I finally get to say it: RTFA! (I know, I know, I'm not new here.. but it's such an irresistable acronym) It's an overly dramatic way of saying that the bacteria found did actually exist underneath the glacier, and were not introduced by contamination of the samples. That's all, nothing to see here, move along. And, AFAIK, Lake Vostok has not been sampled yet.
I wouldn't call it off-topic. For the clueless that already moderated it as such, this refers to a post in the previous SCO/Groklaw story. You know, the good one, with the judge throwing them and their little dog out of court and all. I'll take the potential karma hit and spoonyfork's wrath for pointing this out :)
Ironically, there are portions of the moon that are never exposed to the sun :) Granted, they are small areas in craters near the poles, but still.. the interesting aspect of that is that there might be ice in those spots. Very convenient for future manned moon missions. I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that some peaks near the poles are always exposed to the sun but I'm probably wrong on that one.
FWIW, an annoying bug in rendering Slashdot was recently fixed in Mozilla. At least, I don't see it anymore, using Mozilla 1.8a2.
Alright, even though earlier in the article other forces are named as the main actors on Oort Cloud comets. I read the part that you quote as "once the comet is nudged towards the sun, the bigger planets can then influence the orbits so they become shorter".
:)
Why do I still doubt it? Jupiter mass is only 0.001 solar mass, Oort cloud distance is in the order of magnitude of 100,000 AU, gravity influence decreases with distance squared, and comets are small.
But hey, the Oort Cloud has not even been proven to exist so why are we bickering?
Oh, and the other one is called the Kuiper Belt. How did that 'n' ever sneak up there? :)