NASA officially says - 'Without a budget boost from Congress or cost savings within the Spitzer project, money for the mission will run out Sept. 30 and NASA will decommission the telescope beginning this fall. Spitzer received $16.5 million to operate in fiscal year 2014, which ends Sept. 30. Helou said the initial proposal considered by NASA's senior review called for a reduced operating budget of $15.35 million in fiscal year 2015.'
This over subscribed for observation time mission that cost billions to launch needs just $15~ million dollars to continue science for another year? And yet Congress authorizes funding for another aircraft carrier group that the Pentagon doesn't want with little debate.
The New Horizons mission to Pluto is having trouble finding a follow on target in the Kuiper Belt and is looking for hard to get observation time on the Hubble. Couldn't the Spitzer be used for this purpose instead? Shutting down a functioning space telescope before its mechanical demise is fiscally and scientifically absurd.
I guess the previous and curiously titled comment was not supposed to be a troll. Yes, these early adopter mush brains are doomed. However you have to respect their impulse.
We do live in a real 'materialist' universe. The scientific method works. Superstition was thrown into the dustbin four hundred years ago. Some folks can't seem to throw anything away. Philosophic hoarders.
Memes, memories and instincts are encoded in the mammal and lizard neuron networks of our brain. Your personality is the story you tell of yourself.
What happens to a waterfall when the water dries up? The same thing that happens to your personality when you die. The process stops.
Immortality? The closest one gets is in the library. A magnificent invention improved upon by the internet and more to come.
Evolution conserves design. Each moment is all. Experience and enjoy. Continue the attempt to understand the universe we actually inhabit.
The page is available again and I believe that information is represented by following the connections 45 degrees up and to the left in the proposed chart.
This is what happens when you are so frightened by a problem that you make it worse than if you had rationally dealt with it from the beginning. Storing the waste from each plant at the original site near populated areas is the worst case scenario for the dealing with this problem. The opposition to the Yucca Mountain facility has become politically irrational to the point of making impossible demands for it safe for millions of years. Thousands of years is completely feasible and just hundreds of years should be perfectly acceptable. All these by products will eventually be valuable resources to a future technology. It is criminal negligence and a national disgrace to keep these wastes in cooling pools and proposed dry casks at the plants where they were produced. One can only hope that rational decisions can be made in time to avert a self fulfilling disaster. The prospects for this look poor.
>"Of course, we know it's still wrong. Dark matter (probably), dark energy and the incompatibility between the standard model and general relativity means we still don't know what's going on."
No more to be said. After all of the 19th and 20th century's progress and getting the nature of physics down to close to complete accuracy - we find new data that tells us we still haven't a clue as to what's really going on. Great news actually. Totally new paradigms only happen after moments like these. Science rocks on!
He based the idea on an existing observed behaviour. But he's using a bio-degradeable bag instead of a polyethylene bag.
Exactly the point. This is the sort of practical solution that uses extant behavior rather than trying to force change which often fails. An good idea until the local economy affords graduation to composted toilets, etc.
I agree. The Obama plan actually increases the NASA budget and refocuses it on the things NASA does best with the resources it has, like the continued and expanded deep space exploration of the moon and solar system by robotic probes such as the ongoing and currently very successful Mars program and Saturn orbiter. These are the appropriate areas to spend government money to do non-commercial explorations that will lead to actionable knowledge in the future. Support to bring commercial manned LEO space access to reality is also forward looking. At first glance I was disappointed in the new plan but with a little thought I've come to see that this may be the best long range plan we can actually afford to carry out and keep our options open. The Constellation programs were a slow motion disaster.
This aphorism sure gets around. More from www.twainquotes.com/Lies: A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. - This quote has been attributed to Mark Twain, but it has never been verified as originating with Twain. This quote may have originated with Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) who attributed it to an old proverb in a sermon delivered on Sunday morning, April 1, 1855. Spurgeon was a celebrated English fundamentalist Baptist preacher. His words were: "A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on."
If it's one of the really big old dishes - turn it upside down and add four supports - it makes a great trellis or gazebo! A friend of mine in New Hampshire has one.
No, that was a mistake by over zealous accountants - NASA Administrator Michael Griffin quickly corrected that and promised continued full funding for both rovers as long as they continue to operate.
Even it's broken dragging wheel makes informative discoveries on the Martian surface. The Mars rovers are surely one of our most successful robotic missions ever. Kudos to JPL and NASA and the American Congress for keeping to fund these missions. Let's all keep our fingers crossed for the Phoenix lander this Sunday - landing is at approximately 5PM EST this Sunday on NASA TV.
Gregory Benford has already postulated and described in wonderful detail how the plasmas generated by stars could support a form of life in interstellar space in his recent hard scifi novel The Sunborn (2005). A good read if for this alone. Interesting that suggestive 'evidence' of the possiblity of such beings should now be found.
And of course if you think about it this 'has' to be true to some extent. Hence the 'problems' with finding out what happened 'before' the big bang, etc.
Hmmmm... this makes scienctific research a very stable career option!
I checked this site out and while it sounds like a good idea my cursory look suggests it is not what it claims.
I clicked on 'Ten Dimensions' and found a video by Rob Bryanton proporting to explain them. Rob Bryanton is not a scientist but (from Wikipedia) "is a Canadian author and composer, from Regina, Saskatchewan. He is known for his first book, Imagining the Tenth Dimension. In his book, he discusses many different topics, most notably his new, simplified approach to conceiving the ten dimensions. The book has eleven chapters, which cover a wide variety of topics, from string theory to philosophical questions such as "How much control do we have?" Rob is also a musician. In the back of his book are lyrics for many songs that he wrote."
Notwithstanding the confusion (deliberately or not but never alluded to or explained in the video) he makes between time-like and space-like dimensions, how is this on a supposedly screened science site?
All that said it is an interesting idea done up with nice production values. As presented however it belongs in a 'new age' site not a science one.
An increase of general wealth in any society retards the growth of the population of the next generation. A self limiting property if prosperity can be spread and sustained. It's a big universe people. We can do this. http://iussp2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submi ssionId=50540
I totally agree. Terrorists and terrorism should be a POLICE matter not a military one. You don't go to war against criminals, only other states. The Europeans, Japanese and others have been doing just this for years and with much more success that the 'war' the US is currently waging which has only increased the numbers of terrorists.
1) Player Cally starts the EVE Investment Bank in early 2006 2) A lot of drama goes on in the mean time with people sticking up for the EIB and others calling it a scam 3) Cally's owner decides it's been long enough and cleans out the bank, netting around 700bil in ISK and another 100bil in assets
"Are they really going to try to stop us from leaving the planet? Is that (one of the reasons) what all the spying is about?"
Shhhhhhhh! Oh, fine. Why don't you just e-mail them with our plans! Big mouth.
Where are the hard core geek scifi titles?
on
Top 20 Geek Novels
·
· Score: 1
What about the hard scifi writers like Greg Egan and Ken MacLeod? These authors present great reads about speculative science, cosmology, futurist ideas, singuarity consequences, social change, what it means to be human, etc. Just try and use this stuff as a casual conversation starter. Perfect geek talk to maintain isolation at a party! Should be on the list.
There may be a simpler explaination for why no nearby ETs have been found. See the paper:
http://www.sff.net/people/Geoffrey.Landis/percol at ion.htp
Quoted from the Abstract:
If even a very small fraction of the hundred billion stars in the galaxy are home to technological civilizations which colonize over interstellar distances, the entire galaxy could be completely colonized in a few million years. The absence of such extraterrestrial civilizations visiting Earth is the Fermi paradox.
A model for interstellar colonization is proposed using the assumption that there is a maximum distance over which direct interstellar colonization is feasable. Due to the time lag involved in interstellar communications, it is assumed that an interstellar colony will rapidly develop a culture independent of the civilization that originally settled it.
Any given colony will have a probability P of developing a colonizing civilization, and a probability (1-P) that it will develop a non-colonizing civilization. These assumptions lead to the colonization of the galaxy occuring as a percolation problem. In a percolation problem, there will be a critical value of the percolation probability, Pc. For PPc, small uncolonized voids will exist, bounded by non-colonizing civilizations. When P is on the order of Pc, arbitrarily large filled regions exist, and also arbitrarily large empty regions.
Slashdot Mirror
No, he didn't...
NASA officially says - 'Without a budget boost from Congress or cost savings within the Spitzer project, money for the mission will run out Sept. 30 and NASA will decommission the telescope beginning this fall. Spitzer received $16.5 million to operate in fiscal year 2014, which ends Sept. 30. Helou said the initial proposal considered by NASA's senior review called for a reduced operating budget of $15.35 million in fiscal year 2015.'
This over subscribed for observation time mission that cost billions to launch needs just $15~ million dollars to continue science for another year? And yet Congress authorizes funding for another aircraft carrier group that the Pentagon doesn't want with little debate.
The New Horizons mission to Pluto is having trouble finding a follow on target in the Kuiper Belt and is looking for hard to get observation time on the Hubble. Couldn't the Spitzer be used for this purpose instead? Shutting down a functioning space telescope before its mechanical demise is fiscally and scientifically absurd.
I guess the previous and curiously titled comment was not supposed to be a troll. Yes, these early adopter mush brains are doomed. However you have to respect their impulse.
We do live in a real 'materialist' universe. The scientific method works. Superstition was thrown into the dustbin four hundred years ago. Some folks can't seem to throw anything away. Philosophic hoarders.
Memes, memories and instincts are encoded in the mammal and lizard neuron networks of our brain. Your personality is the story you tell of yourself.
What happens to a waterfall when the water dries up? The same thing that happens to your personality when you die. The process stops.
Immortality? The closest one gets is in the library. A magnificent invention improved upon by the internet and more to come.
Evolution conserves design. Each moment is all. Experience and enjoy. Continue the attempt to understand the universe we actually inhabit.
I feel threatened by your post... Bang.
The page is available again and I believe that information is represented by following the connections 45 degrees up and to the left in the proposed chart.
This is what happens when you are so frightened by a problem that you make it worse than if you had rationally dealt with it from the beginning. Storing the waste from each plant at the original site near populated areas is the worst case scenario for the dealing with this problem. The opposition to the Yucca Mountain facility has become politically irrational to the point of making impossible demands for it safe for millions of years. Thousands of years is completely feasible and just hundreds of years should be perfectly acceptable. All these by products will eventually be valuable resources to a future technology. It is criminal negligence and a national disgrace to keep these wastes in cooling pools and proposed dry casks at the plants where they were produced. One can only hope that rational decisions can be made in time to avert a self fulfilling disaster. The prospects for this look poor.
>"Of course, we know it's still wrong. Dark matter (probably), dark energy and the incompatibility between the standard model and general relativity means we still don't know what's going on."
No more to be said. After all of the 19th and 20th century's progress and getting the nature of physics down to close to complete accuracy - we find new data that tells us we still haven't a clue as to what's really going on. Great news actually. Totally new paradigms only happen after moments like these. Science rocks on!
He based the idea on an existing observed behaviour. But he's using a bio-degradeable bag instead of a polyethylene bag.
Exactly the point. This is the sort of practical solution that uses extant behavior rather than trying to force change which often fails. An good idea until the local economy affords graduation to composted toilets, etc.
I agree. The Obama plan actually increases the NASA budget and refocuses it on the things NASA does best with the resources it has, like the continued and expanded deep space exploration of the moon and solar system by robotic probes such as the ongoing and currently very successful Mars program and Saturn orbiter. These are the appropriate areas to spend government money to do non-commercial explorations that will lead to actionable knowledge in the future. Support to bring commercial manned LEO space access to reality is also forward looking. At first glance I was disappointed in the new plan but with a little thought I've come to see that this may be the best long range plan we can actually afford to carry out and keep our options open. The Constellation programs were a slow motion disaster.
This aphorism sure gets around. More from www.twainquotes.com/Lies:
A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
- This quote has been attributed to Mark Twain, but it has never been verified as originating with Twain. This quote may have originated with Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) who attributed it to an old proverb in a sermon delivered on Sunday morning, April 1, 1855. Spurgeon was a celebrated English fundamentalist Baptist preacher. His words were: "A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on."
If it's one of the really big old dishes - turn it upside down and add four supports - it makes a great trellis or gazebo! A friend of mine in New Hampshire has one.
No, that was a mistake by over zealous accountants - NASA Administrator Michael Griffin quickly corrected that and promised continued full funding for both rovers as long as they continue to operate.
Even it's broken dragging wheel makes informative discoveries on the Martian surface. The Mars rovers are surely one of our most successful robotic missions ever. Kudos to JPL and NASA and the American Congress for keeping to fund these missions. Let's all keep our fingers crossed for the Phoenix lander this Sunday - landing is at approximately 5PM EST this Sunday on NASA TV.
Gregory Benford has already postulated and described in wonderful detail how the plasmas generated by stars could support a form of life in interstellar space in his recent hard scifi novel The Sunborn (2005). A good read if for this alone. Interesting that suggestive 'evidence' of the possiblity of such beings should now be found.
And of course if you think about it this 'has' to be true to some extent. Hence the 'problems' with finding out what happened 'before' the big bang, etc.
Hmmmm... this makes scienctific research a very stable career option!
I checked this site out and while it sounds like a good idea my cursory look suggests it is not what it claims.
I clicked on 'Ten Dimensions' and found a video by Rob Bryanton proporting to explain them. Rob Bryanton is not a scientist but (from Wikipedia) "is a Canadian author and composer, from Regina, Saskatchewan. He is known for his first book, Imagining the Tenth Dimension. In his book, he discusses many different topics, most notably his new, simplified approach to conceiving the ten dimensions. The book has eleven chapters, which cover a wide variety of topics, from string theory to philosophical questions such as "How much control do we have?" Rob is also a musician. In the back of his book are lyrics for many songs that he wrote."
Notwithstanding the confusion (deliberately or not but never alluded to or explained in the video) he makes between time-like and space-like dimensions, how is this on a supposedly screened science site?
All that said it is an interesting idea done up with nice production values. As presented however it belongs in a 'new age' site not a science one.
An increase of general wealth in any society retards the growth of the population of the next generation. A self limiting property if prosperity can be spread and sustained. It's a big universe people. We can do this. http://iussp2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submi ssionId=50540
It was actually the Enterpise D... someone misspoke.
I totally agree. Terrorists and terrorism should be a POLICE matter not a military one. You don't go to war against criminals, only other states. The Europeans, Japanese and others have been doing just this for years and with much more success that the 'war' the US is currently waging which has only increased the numbers of terrorists.
So you don't have to look it up in the thread:
1) Player Cally starts the EVE Investment Bank in early 2006
2) A lot of drama goes on in the mean time with people sticking up for the EIB and others calling it a scam
3) Cally's owner decides it's been long enough and cleans out the bank, netting around 700bil in ISK and another 100bil in assets
Dr Strangelove, of course. Although he was more of a 'political' scientist... "Mein Furher! I can walk!"
"Are they really going to try to stop us from leaving the planet? Is that (one of the reasons) what all the spying is about?"
Shhhhhhhh! Oh, fine. Why don't you just e-mail them with our plans! Big mouth.
What about the hard scifi writers like Greg Egan and Ken MacLeod? These authors present great reads about speculative science, cosmology, futurist ideas, singuarity consequences, social change, what it means to be human, etc. Just try and use this stuff as a casual conversation starter. Perfect geek talk to maintain isolation at a party! Should be on the list.
There may be a simpler explaination for why no nearby ETs have been found. See the paper:
l at ion.htp
http://www.sff.net/people/Geoffrey.Landis/perco
Quoted from the Abstract:
If even a very small fraction of the hundred billion stars in the galaxy are home to technological civilizations which colonize over interstellar distances, the entire galaxy could be completely colonized in a few million years. The absence of such extraterrestrial civilizations visiting Earth is the Fermi paradox.
A model for interstellar colonization is proposed using the assumption that there is a maximum distance over which direct interstellar colonization is feasable. Due to the time lag involved in interstellar communications, it is assumed that an interstellar colony will rapidly develop a culture independent of the civilization that originally settled it.
Any given colony will have a probability P of developing a colonizing civilization, and a probability (1-P) that it will develop a non-colonizing civilization. These assumptions lead to the colonization of the galaxy occuring as a percolation problem. In a percolation problem, there will be a critical value of the percolation probability, Pc. For PPc, small uncolonized voids will exist, bounded by non-colonizing civilizations. When P is on the order of Pc, arbitrarily large filled regions exist, and also arbitrarily large empty regions.
Duh! That's what I meant. Thanks for the clarification!