A Tulsa beer distributor, who wishes to remain anonymous, will donate its expired beer to the project. The distributor annually destroys about $200,000 worth of expired beer.
What comes to mind:
How do you tell when mass-produced American beer is expired? Bud, Miller, et al, taste bad at any point in their lives. I guess that's why that "born on dating" nonsense.
Destroying $200,000 worth of beer anually??? That's in excess of 50,000 six packs a year at wholesale prices. Me thinks they need a little better handle on purchases vs. sales...No wonder they want to remain anonymous.
Isn't this going to lead to an awful lot of dead slugs? A pie tin full of stale beer was how my parents used to kill slugs in their garden.
How do they plan to keep the local college students out? Even if the beer is "expired", I can picture a local frat backing a pickup up to the pond with a pump and a 55-gallon drum before their next party...
... ice in the soil was once present as close to the equator
as 30 degrees and as recently as 100,000 years
I realize that's a very short time in geologic time, but that's an awfully long time to consider there's still useful amounts of water anywhere near the equator: Astronaut 1: Where's the water? Astronaut 2: Water? Astronaut 1: You know...for drinking, creating fuel for the trip home...that sort of thing. Astronaut 2: Oh, that! I dunno...it was here a 100,000 years ago!
Still, it's interesting data about the changes on Mars.
Dude, we've been hearing about the Voyagers nearing the heliopause and the termination shock for years. They're still not there, though. Why should this time be any different?
Because we might learn something when they do?
From the article:
Arriving at the termination shock is more than a rat race. It will allow scientists to estimate the size of the heliosphere, and Stone says this measure will help answer truly fundamental questions.
"If we can determine how large the heliosphere is, we will then have a measure of what's outside in interstellar space. We have indications now, but we don't know accurately what's out there," he said.
Of course, on the flip side, we may not be able to learn much even when they get there:
But Voyager was designed for planetary observations, so there it is unclear how much information can be gathered.
Although photons do carry the electropmagnetic force, light is made up of randomly polarized photons and therefore cannot provide propulsive force. Also, since photons have no mass, they cannot have momentum, because momentum=mass*velocity^2 Only particles with mass can propel a solar sail.
Hmmm...you might want to explain that to the folks over at the Interplanetary Society before they send up another one of these things, as they seem to have different ideas:
3. How does a solar sail work?
When the light from the Sun hits the surface of the solar sail, the energy, or momentum, of photons (light particles) is transferred to the sail - as the light is reflected away, it gives the sail a slight "push." The force is controlled by the angle of the sail with respect to the Sun, adding to or subtracting from the orbital velocity.
This is perfectly alright and all, except what happens if we need to approach a star that has a higher strength solar wind than the one propelling the craft? It seems to me it wouldn't matter what color, etc., the reverse side was, you'd still get a pressure front pushing you away. Thus, wouldn't some stars be impossible to approach with this technology?
Just reef the sails. Or if they're too fragile to retract, effectively do so by turning the craft perpendicular to the photons for a bit, until it's close enough into the star that the increased deceleration is adjusted for. (I know some wag will ask: why not just go at night?;-)
BTW, it's photons powering the craft, i.e., sunlight, not protons, i.e., solar wind or whatever. That was a typo in the CNN article; they got it right a couple articles ago, but got it wrong in the last two.
Speaking of lasers, check out some interesting solar sail material, thicker than previously used, and able to withstand laser temperatures, so you could accelerate with lasers and sunlight close to home, for an added boost.
...sometimes comes down. I hope this project succeeds, and I think it or one like it will ultimately, but aren't they a little worried about their spacecraft hitting the ground? While not densely populated, the Kamchatka Peninsula does have people living there, not to mention lots of wildlife. I thought the launch from the sub was part of making sure when it came down it did so in the ocean.
The closest I've gotten to that is the anchovies in Jansson's Frestelse, and I'm perfectly happy to leave it at that.
Though I suppose with enough glug I might be convinced:-)
Whenever a scientist publishes, it IS open-sourced.
But when Celera or some private company announces results, that's not same as publishing a paper in peer-reviewed journal. My comment wasn't about this case (go, Bo!), but about what I can tell of the process as a whole.
1- Most databases are publicly available.
2- Many bioinformatics groups DO cooperate
"Many and most" is not all. Is Celera really cooperating with the HGP? I know Celera has a Consensus Human Genome site, but that is that everything they know? How does that compare with the UCSC data? Is the patenting of gene sequences and techniques inhibiting research? I'm not asking these to troll, but simply because I'd like to know the answers.
Unfortunately, everybody has a different view of what is a gene and how to find them.
Probably in part because we don't know as much yet about genetics as we'd like to think. Is "junk DNA" just that? Or some subtle part of the design that we have yet to understand?
The result is a lot of data, but those data are scattered in numerous databases that are organised and maintained in diverse ways by various research teams.
Maybe if they open sourced their efforts and cooperated, (a) they'd spend less time potentially looking at the same things and inventing the same processes (b) somebody would get a better sense of how much has been done and how much is left to go by looking at all the data.
I know, I know...there wouldn't be any patents and piles of money if they did it that way, hence they have no motivation to...
And of course, then they'd then spend their time fighting off German lawsuits for naming their sequencing software KGene or some such...
Gene Anderson
do you know the name of any given modern ship captain?
Who can forget (though we all try), Captain Stubing? Or is the Love Boat not considered modern? (BTW, there's some really angry people posting on that site, not suprising, given the name, http://www.whowouldyoukill.com)
Or Jonas Grumby (better known as "The Skipper")?
But we have to stop living under the delusion that they are really simple to use. They aren't. Maybe they will be one day but today they aren't. That includes any flavour of Windoze you choose.
I haven't tried OS X or used a G4, but the iMac and older Macs are easy to use. You pull 'em out of the box, plug 'em in, and they go. Installing new hardware beyond a printer is pretty unusual for most folks. And installing a new OS on a machine isn't typical (despite what/. readers might think) -- most people buy a machine, and then leave the original OS on it. Keeping with the car metaphor, installing a new OS is more akin to ripping out the engine and installing an electric motor and a bank of batteries. If the radio stops working, don't expect Ford or whoever to be aple to walk you through the problem over the phone.
But the root of this thread is probably correct -- this is going to complicate customer support, even for other software makers: Support: OK, so the problem is your internet settings. Go to Settings, Control Panel, and then click on...
Customer: Control Panel? What's that? I've just got the "Compaq Über Settings Borg Command Sphere". There's nothing called "Control Panel".
I've helped various non-profits with their computers (even over the phone sometimes). And I remember none too fondly some of the whacked interfaces some of the OEM machines had. Customization isn't bad, but messing up the interface to do it can be.
And why Canada Post? Let's just see. It takes a week to get a 1kg package from New Zealand [to] Regina Saskatchewan. It also takes a week to get a letter from a place 5 hours away from Regina to Regina. This make sense?
Reminds me of a joke I heard some years back about Canada Post:
"Canada Post doesn't really charge 32 cents for a stamp. It's 2 cents for postage and 30 cents for storage."
-- Gerald Regan, Cabinet Minister, 12/31/83 Financial Post
Given the tales of near collision with an asteroid back in 1998, followed up a day later with a retraction, I wonder about the ability to accurately calculate something this far out in the future and that far away to start. The asteroid was only 30 years in the future, and they were off by quite a bit (30,000 miles then 600,000, a factor of 20). Not to be a doubting Thomas, but how can they predict intra-galactic positions over 1.5 million years in the future with any kind of accuracy? Maybe I should have kept auditing that astrophysics course in the summer of '83...
Might as well down your beers now. According to the article on IndiaWorld:
For a common man there is no need to worry. The next shower of comets is millions of years away. Before they cause mass extinction, mankind will destroy itself by pollution, rising sea levels, wars and possibly nuclear weapons.
Agreed -- these echo my own thoughts on the subject. It's not that I think nuclear power has no future, it's that the current record thus far doesn't make me trust either the government or the industry to handle it safely and for a reasonable cost. Further research, especially into fusion is what's needed.
My biggest concern about nuclear booster rockets is not the small amount of radiation they'll release at very high altitudes (there's plenty of natural radiation there already), but what will happen if the rocket fails ala the Challenger or they have to abort during liftoff (which they do by detonating the rocket so it doesn't come down in one big chunk someplace unexpected). A bunch of radiation released into the upper atmospheric winds is going to spread it all over the planet.
As in the very funny Tom Lehrer song, "Werner von Braun": ...once the rockets are up,
who cares where they come down?
that's not my department,
says Werner von Braun:-)
Let's go ahead and put Japanese on the list of "bastard" languages that "steal" from others.
At least you know what you're getting with Japanese. Loan words are written in a special alphabet called Katakana. It's phonetic (similar to Hiragana, which is a phonetic alphabet for pronouncing Japanese words), and when you see a word written in it you know it's a loan word. Or some gaijin's name. It doesn't have all the sounds from other languages, so some words morph. Just ask my brother-in-law, Rars...er...Lars, who lived in Tokyo for a year.
Japanese has borrowed from many languages, including Chinese, Portuguese, and English (including my favorite, hottoke-ki = pancakes). Of course, English has returned the favor, borrowing sushi (which sounds so much better than uncooked fish) and a host of other words.
Apply this story to petrol, and you will see - its all about the cost/benefit ration. Someday oil will be scarce, and it will cost 50/gallon. Then people will switch, because the ratio is whacked. Someday the readily usuable supply of oil will dry up, and exploring for new oil and actually drilling for it will become so expensive, the problem will solve itself.
Hmm...that sounds a lot like it's going to effectively run out, whether there's literally no crude oil left or not. I just hope we don't get far enough along that curve that we really trash the planet looking for those last few nuts...er...deposits of oil. Still, an interesting idea.
First off, the electric situation is terrible in that country. This is not just for the remote undeveloped rural regions. In the major metropolitan areas, even the capital city, Santo Domingo, just about everyone who can afford it has their own gas generator. Why? Because the power outages are frequent and of great duration.
Sounds like Nigeria (where a friend is working with the government to set up some computer labs and training). The power goes out frequently enough that "Oh NEPA!" (NEPA = Nigerian Electrical Power Administration) has entered the vernacular. Lots of businesses, especially in Lagos, and not just computer-based ones find it difficult to work when the power drops out randomly and for long stretches.
...but don't think that the fuel will ever run out. It won't, and the reasons why are complex (more than I want to talk about here).
I'm intrigued...why won't it run out? At least a web link to the general theory? Thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
"Anyone hearing the broad-band sound should immediately know the precise location of its source"
Yeah, the URL is right over here.
No, wait, here.
Oh, hell...I don't know.
Hmmm...I guess it doesn't work so well at providing its location as they think :-)
From the article:
I realize that's a very short time in geologic time, but that's an awfully long time to consider there's still useful amounts of water anywhere near the equator:
Astronaut 1: Where's the water?
Astronaut 2: Water?
Astronaut 1: You know...for drinking, creating fuel for the trip home...that sort of thing.
Astronaut 2: Oh, that! I dunno...it was here a 100,000 years ago!
Still, it's interesting data about the changes on Mars.
Dude, we've been hearing about the Voyagers nearing the heliopause and the termination shock for years. They're still not there, though. Why should this time be any different?
Because we might learn something when they do?
From the article:
Of course, on the flip side, we may not be able to learn much even when they get there:
Although photons do carry the electropmagnetic force, light is made up of randomly polarized photons and therefore cannot provide propulsive force. Also, since photons have no mass, they cannot have momentum, because momentum=mass*velocity^2 Only particles with mass can propel a solar sail.
Hmmm...you might want to explain that to the folks over at the Interplanetary Society before they send up another one of these things, as they seem to have different ideas:
JPL and NASA seem to be under similar delusions.Just reef the sails. Or if they're too fragile to retract, effectively do so by turning the craft perpendicular to the photons for a bit, until it's close enough into the star that the increased deceleration is adjusted for. (I know some wag will ask: why not just go at night? ;-)
BTW, it's photons powering the craft, i.e., sunlight, not protons, i.e., solar wind or whatever. That was a typo in the CNN article; they got it right a couple articles ago, but got it wrong in the last two.
Speaking of lasers, check out some interesting solar sail material, thicker than previously used, and able to withstand laser temperatures, so you could accelerate with lasers and sunlight close to home, for an added boost.
...sometimes comes down. I hope this project succeeds, and I think it or one like it will ultimately, but aren't they a little worried about their spacecraft hitting the ground? While not densely populated, the Kamchatka Peninsula does have people living there, not to mention lots of wildlife. I thought the launch from the sub was part of making sure when it came down it did so in the ocean.
The closest I've gotten to that is the anchovies in Jansson's Frestelse, and I'm perfectly happy to leave it at that. Though I suppose with enough glug I might be convinced :-)
If you've heard of lutefisk, you have to be suspicious any time a Scandanavian uses "fresh" and "fish" in the same sentence :-)
More fuel for Microsoft calling open source a virus. And it's one that's growing faster and faster!
See the PHP Manual's section on security as a good place to start.
Whenever a scientist publishes, it IS open-sourced. But when Celera or some private company announces results, that's not same as publishing a paper in peer-reviewed journal. My comment wasn't about this case (go, Bo!), but about what I can tell of the process as a whole.
1- Most databases are publicly available.
2- Many bioinformatics groups DO cooperate
"Many and most" is not all. Is Celera really cooperating with the HGP? I know Celera has a Consensus Human Genome site, but that is that everything they know? How does that compare with the UCSC data? Is the patenting of gene sequences and techniques inhibiting research? I'm not asking these to troll, but simply because I'd like to know the answers. Unfortunately, everybody has a different view of what is a gene and how to find them. Probably in part because we don't know as much yet about genetics as we'd like to think. Is "junk DNA" just that? Or some subtle part of the design that we have yet to understand?
The result is a lot of data, but those data are scattered in numerous databases that are organised and maintained in diverse ways by various research teams. Maybe if they open sourced their efforts and cooperated, (a) they'd spend less time potentially looking at the same things and inventing the same processes (b) somebody would get a better sense of how much has been done and how much is left to go by looking at all the data. I know, I know...there wouldn't be any patents and piles of money if they did it that way, hence they have no motivation to... And of course, then they'd then spend their time fighting off German lawsuits for naming their sequencing software KGene or some such... Gene Anderson
do you know the name of any given modern ship captain? Who can forget (though we all try), Captain Stubing? Or is the Love Boat not considered modern? (BTW, there's some really angry people posting on that site, not suprising, given the name, http://www.whowouldyoukill.com) Or Jonas Grumby (better known as "The Skipper")?
I haven't tried OS X or used a G4, but the iMac and older Macs are easy to use. You pull 'em out of the box, plug 'em in, and they go. Installing new hardware beyond a printer is pretty unusual for most folks. And installing a new OS on a machine isn't typical (despite what /. readers might think) -- most people buy a machine, and then leave the original OS on it. Keeping with the car metaphor, installing a new OS is more akin to ripping out the engine and installing an electric motor and a bank of batteries. If the radio stops working, don't expect Ford or whoever to be aple to walk you through the problem over the phone.
But the root of this thread is probably correct -- this is going to complicate customer support, even for other software makers:
Support: OK, so the problem is your internet settings. Go to Settings, Control Panel, and then click on...
Customer: Control Panel? What's that? I've just got the "Compaq Über Settings Borg Command Sphere". There's nothing called "Control Panel".
I've helped various non-profits with their computers (even over the phone sometimes). And I remember none too fondly some of the whacked interfaces some of the OEM machines had. Customization isn't bad, but messing up the interface to do it can be.
Given the tales of near collision with an asteroid back in 1998, followed up a day later with a retraction, I wonder about the ability to accurately calculate something this far out in the future and that far away to start. The asteroid was only 30 years in the future, and they were off by quite a bit (30,000 miles then 600,000, a factor of 20). Not to be a doubting Thomas, but how can they predict intra-galactic positions over 1.5 million years in the future with any kind of accuracy? Maybe I should have kept auditing that astrophysics course in the summer of '83...
Agreed -- these echo my own thoughts on the subject. It's not that I think nuclear power has no future, it's that the current record thus far doesn't make me trust either the government or the industry to handle it safely and for a reasonable cost. Further research, especially into fusion is what's needed. My biggest concern about nuclear booster rockets is not the small amount of radiation they'll release at very high altitudes (there's plenty of natural radiation there already), but what will happen if the rocket fails ala the Challenger or they have to abort during liftoff (which they do by detonating the rocket so it doesn't come down in one big chunk someplace unexpected). A bunch of radiation released into the upper atmospheric winds is going to spread it all over the planet. As in the very funny Tom Lehrer song, "Werner von Braun":
...once the rockets are up, :-)
who cares where they come down?
that's not my department,
says Werner von Braun
It's AIDS not AIDs Yep...a typo. I thought all Slashdot posts had to have at least one misspelling :-)
Let's go ahead and put Japanese on the list of "bastard" languages that "steal" from others. At least you know what you're getting with Japanese. Loan words are written in a special alphabet called Katakana. It's phonetic (similar to Hiragana, which is a phonetic alphabet for pronouncing Japanese words), and when you see a word written in it you know it's a loan word. Or some gaijin's name. It doesn't have all the sounds from other languages, so some words morph. Just ask my brother-in-law, Rars...er...Lars, who lived in Tokyo for a year. Japanese has borrowed from many languages, including Chinese, Portuguese, and English (including my favorite, hottoke-ki = pancakes). Of course, English has returned the favor, borrowing sushi (which sounds so much better than uncooked fish) and a host of other words.
Apply this story to petrol, and you will see - its all about the cost/benefit ration. Someday oil will be scarce, and it will cost 50/gallon. Then people will switch, because the ratio is whacked. Someday the readily usuable supply of oil will dry up, and exploring for new oil and actually drilling for it will become so expensive, the problem will solve itself. Hmm...that sounds a lot like it's going to effectively run out, whether there's literally no crude oil left or not. I just hope we don't get far enough along that curve that we really trash the planet looking for those last few nuts...er...deposits of oil. Still, an interesting idea.
First off, the electric situation is terrible in that country. This is not just for the remote undeveloped rural regions. In the major metropolitan areas, even the capital city, Santo Domingo, just about everyone who can afford it has their own gas generator. Why? Because the power outages are frequent and of great duration. Sounds like Nigeria (where a friend is working with the government to set up some computer labs and training). The power goes out frequently enough that "Oh NEPA!" (NEPA = Nigerian Electrical Power Administration) has entered the vernacular. Lots of businesses, especially in Lagos, and not just computer-based ones find it difficult to work when the power drops out randomly and for long stretches.
...but don't think that the fuel will ever run out. It won't, and the reasons why are complex (more than I want to talk about here). I'm intrigued...why won't it run out? At least a web link to the general theory? Thanks.