This assumes NASA's #1 priority is manned spaceflight - a premise I do not accept.
From New Horizons to Cassini and Messenger, the amount of non-manned spacecraft visiting Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto to expand our knowledge of the solar system in just this decade has been extensive. (Oh yeah, and the Mars rovers - the asteroid mission, etc. etc.)
He is being a bit of a blowhard to say we've nothing to show for the money NASA has spent.
If you're looking for an airfoil simulator, you might try NASA's FoilSim II. "Elementary," student, and undergraduate versions are available, and the non-applet download gives an even more complete version that allows file output. While it's not a full CFD package, it may be good enough for an introduction to airfoil analysis. And while it's not open source, it is free and in the public domain (since it was government produced).
Also, if you're generally looking for open source physics simulations, you should check out Open Source Physics at http://www.compadre.org/osp/
In particular, a brief search there yielded the Tracker Air Resistance Model - a level appropriate simulation that lets students explore the air resistance of falling coffee cups with both viscous (linear) and drag (quadratic) models.
Nearly all of the OSP items have the source code available for modification of the models.
If you don't have Journey through Genius by William Dunham, you should. It is a GREAT book that shows beautiful mathematics while telling interesting historical stories.
I read it in high school, and it helped me develop a love for mathematics.
This goes completely against the American Library Association's issued "Recommended Procedures for Law Enforcement Visits" policy:
"Without a court order, neither the FBI nor local law enforcement has authority to compel cooperation with an investigation or require answers to questions, other than the name and address of the person speaking to the agent or officer. If the agent or officer persists, or makes an appeal to patriotism, the library director should explain that, as good citizens, the library staff will not respond to informal requests for confidential information, in conformity with professional ethics, First Amendment freedoms, and state law.
If the agent or officer presents a search warrant or other judicial process, the library director should immediately call the library's counsel and ask for assistance."
See http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/ocw.html to read about how MIT answers your charges in explicit detail. They clearly state that what you're paying for is the interactive experience, the ability to ask and have questions answered, and, oh yeah, the degree. It's from 2001 so you're getting angry 7 years after the fact.
Personally, I think that if someone has the time, energy, and drive to learn something this way, more power to them.
I also believe that these lectures are less useful than a book would be in learning as they can't possibly go into the same depth. And just like I'm not going to complain about my professors putting a free book online, I don't care about the lectures.
I think you may have missed the altruistic mission that many universities have of encouraging learning in all forms, by all people - not just those sitting their butts in a local classroom.
The bubble fusion principle has been shown to work in the same way that the current experimental fusion reactors have - by pumping in a whole lot of energy, you can get some back.
However, while fusion research has led to a point where they have a research path to hopefully generate more energy than they've put in, bubble fusion is no more than a high temperature curiosity right now.
That is true if you had no other information. However, you do have other information in the form of knowing the odds of a particular set of hats being chosen, and that is what is being used here.
Slashdot Mirror
This assumes NASA's #1 priority is manned spaceflight - a premise I do not accept.
From New Horizons to Cassini and Messenger, the amount of non-manned spacecraft visiting Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto to expand our knowledge of the solar system in just this decade has been extensive. (Oh yeah, and the Mars rovers - the asteroid mission, etc. etc.)
He is being a bit of a blowhard to say we've nothing to show for the money NASA has spent.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
If you're looking for an airfoil simulator, you might try NASA's FoilSim II. "Elementary," student, and undergraduate versions are available, and the non-applet download gives an even more complete version that allows file output. While it's not a full CFD package, it may be good enough for an introduction to airfoil analysis. And while it's not open source, it is free and in the public domain (since it was government produced).
Also, if you're generally looking for open source physics simulations, you should check out Open Source Physics at http://www.compadre.org/osp/
In particular, a brief search there yielded the Tracker Air Resistance Model - a level appropriate simulation that lets students explore the air resistance of falling coffee cups with both viscous (linear) and drag (quadratic) models.
Nearly all of the OSP items have the source code available for modification of the models.
If you don't have Journey through Genius by William Dunham, you should. It is a GREAT book that shows beautiful mathematics while telling interesting historical stories.
I read it in high school, and it helped me develop a love for mathematics.
It remains on my bookshelf today.
This goes completely against the American Library Association's issued "Recommended Procedures for Law Enforcement Visits" policy:
"Without a court order, neither the FBI nor local law enforcement has authority to compel cooperation with an investigation or require answers to questions, other than the name and address of the person speaking to the agent or officer. If the agent or officer persists, or makes an appeal to patriotism, the library director should explain that, as good citizens, the library staff will not respond to informal requests for confidential information, in conformity with professional ethics, First Amendment freedoms, and state law.
If the agent or officer presents a search warrant or other judicial process, the library director should immediately call the library's counsel and ask for assistance."
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/ifissues/confidentiality.cfm
This library director was just a putz (and I can say that as a libraian-in-training).
See http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/ocw.html to read about how MIT answers your charges in explicit detail. They clearly state that what you're paying for is the interactive experience, the ability to ask and have questions answered, and, oh yeah, the degree. It's from 2001 so you're getting angry 7 years after the fact.
Personally, I think that if someone has the time, energy, and drive to learn something this way, more power to them.
I also believe that these lectures are less useful than a book would be in learning as they can't possibly go into the same depth. And just like I'm not going to complain about my professors putting a free book online, I don't care about the lectures.
I think you may have missed the altruistic mission that many universities have of encouraging learning in all forms, by all people - not just those sitting their butts in a local classroom.
I wonder if these kill-bots have a preset kill limit.
The bubble fusion principle has been shown to work in the same way that the current experimental fusion reactors have - by pumping in a whole lot of energy, you can get some back.
However, while fusion research has led to a point where they have a research path to hopefully generate more energy than they've put in, bubble fusion is no more than a high temperature curiosity right now.
Missle defense is just going to create another arms race as countries build weapons that can get past them.
An open source missile defence would be its very nature be the easiest to fool, so I don't necessarily see the use.
Aside from all that, good luck.
That is true if you had no other information. However, you do have other information in the form of knowing the odds of a particular set of hats being chosen, and that is what is being used here.