Excellent analysis. I'll just issue one minor carp about this:
The satellite that was shot down yesterday was very, very close to the Earth's atmosphere. It was only one rotation, maybe less, away from starting to graze it
The satellite was never really out of the atmosphere, because as you go up in altitude, the atmosphere never really stops. The number of molecules per unit volume just gets smaller and smaller.
Every time a satellite hits a molecule, it loses a tiny amount of energy, and that lowers its orbit by a tiny amount. The lower the orbit gets, the more molecules get in the way, so the process gradually accelerates until the satellite "burns in".
At the high altitudes used by communications birds, the concentration of molecules is barely above that of deep space, which I believe is on the order of one per cubic meter, and it can take centuries for the decay process to get on a roll. At the other end of the scale, there is a tipping point around 150 miles up, where the satellite will be losing measurable altitude from one rev to the next, and reentry is imminent; that's where this satellite was yesterday.
In other words, the satellite was on the way down because it was getting lower in the atmosphere, not "close to it".
The likelihood of the propellant tank making it to Earth in a populated area while still sufficiently intact to release hydrazine on impact is infinitesimal.
...and a hydrazine spill is not exactly cataclysmic. If you'd like to know how many hydrazine tanks have impacted the earth before, just look up the number of F-16 crashes.
The problem was a Catch-22: they lack legal 'standing' to sue over it because they can't prove that they were suspected terrorists, but neither can they find out who was actually suspected, because this is a matter of national security.
...plus c'est la meme chose. The French used that same crap on Alfred Dreyfus in 1894.
Yes they were, when Avery Brundage was running the show. He also kicked the Jews off the US team in Berlin, and fought to keep the female events "decorative"...he'd be right at home in China.
It makes you realise just how utterly huge this place is
It would take very roughly 1,750,000,000,000 light single-engine airplanes to cover the dry-land area of this planet -- or 15,500,000,000 for Nevada. Yes, it's a very big place.
Aerial searches that find nothing are not in the least uncommon. An FAA district office I visited in Denver some years back had a wall map showing the last known positions of over thirty aircraft just in Colorado. Even Ohio, the most uniformly populated state, has one or two.
Like to try an expensive science-fair project? Make a full-size cardboard effigy of a crashed airplane, have someone place it in a random spot in an area of, say, 20 x 20 miles, then charter an airplane and look for it.
It's spooky, really, but I have to think that there'll be a Slashdot story in a few years about how his bones and his plane were found using new Google Maps Streetview - Desert Edition.
There is an organized project trying to do that, right now.
Scanner dealers used to stock books that listed the modifications necessary to enable those frequencies, and the modification usually consisted of clipping a jumper. On Radio Shack products, the jumper was often raised an eighth inch above the board for easy clipping...
I wonder whether these adults are the generation of childhood-inoculated kids, grown up. When I was a kid, almost all of us got the measles at some point, and I had a heavy case that left my hearing with a cutoff around 8 KHz. By contrast, my son never had anything worse than the strep; when he was in his twenties, he went to a medical appointment in a building he hadn't visited before, and couldn't stay in the building because of a painfully loud sound emanating from the HVAC. He had to reschedule at a different office.
The classical definition of "server" would also preclude hosting that FPS game for your buddies or even mIRC's ident daemon if you want to get REALLY technical about it.
...or ftp'ing files home when you're on the road, for that matter.
...it's not "the smell of space" but the smell of something that's just been in space. Most organic substances have some volatile compounds in them, and as soon as something is manufactured, the volatiles near the surface begin evaporating; before long, the surface is odorless. Now put it in vacuum, and the volatiles in the interior begin diffusing toward the region of zero pressure, passing through the surface on the way -- so the surface winds up having its volatile concentration restored.
Not Segway, Nautilus. Put an assembly of these suckers on all your major joints, dump the generated power into a resistor, and you have an exercise machine.
Remember when it was impossible for the human body to sit in anything that accelerated as fast as 60mph?
Ummm, no. When was that?
There's a bit of folklore that says scientists in the early 19th century predicted that railroads would be unfeasible because the human body couldn't withstand 20 mph...and I suppose you could buy that story if you thought horses were a modern invention.
it always amazes me how efficient birds are; with what little they seem to eat, they can fuel incredible amounts of flight time; I guess they only have to keep a few ounces aloft, although it still impresses me.
The daily food consumption of a bird ranges from 10 percent of its body weight for an eagle to 200 percent for a hummingbird. Metabolism-powered flight is incredibly inefficient.
The reason for the lower consumption of large birds is that they don't fly that way any more than they have to. They can lock their wing joints in the spread position with no muscular exertion, glide effortlessly, and use soaring techniques (riding on rising air) to get energy, just as humans do with sailplanes (which, BTW, outperform them quite handily in every respect except the talent for finding that rising air).
Slashdot Mirror
A free balloon occupies airspace at one altitude. A tethered balloon occupies airspace at that altitude and every altitude below it.
rj
rj
The satellite that was shot down yesterday was very, very close to the Earth's atmosphere. It was only one rotation, maybe less, away from starting to graze it
The satellite was never really out of the atmosphere, because as you go up in altitude, the atmosphere never really stops. The number of molecules per unit volume just gets smaller and smaller.
Every time a satellite hits a molecule, it loses a tiny amount of energy, and that lowers its orbit by a tiny amount. The lower the orbit gets, the more molecules get in the way, so the process gradually accelerates until the satellite "burns in".
At the high altitudes used by communications birds, the concentration of molecules is barely above that of deep space, which I believe is on the order of one per cubic meter, and it can take centuries for the decay process to get on a roll. At the other end of the scale, there is a tipping point around 150 miles up, where the satellite will be losing measurable altitude from one rev to the next, and reentry is imminent; that's where this satellite was yesterday.
In other words, the satellite was on the way down because it was getting lower in the atmosphere, not "close to it".
rj
rj
Nope: it's just a rammer, no explosives.
rj
If you were looking for a place to hide money right now, having read this thread, would you select that bank?
rj
One word: Maser.
rj
rj
Why? It's not like they didn't see it happen before with quad sound...
rj
Of course they can. It stands for more money, so it's better.
rj
Some learn by study; some learn from advice; and some just have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
rj
-You're gonna love this. The secretary where I work? She had a birthday coming up, and we planned a surprise party--
-Her dog likes peanut butter, right?
-STOMP STOMP stomp stomp stomp...
rj
Showing him his bank balance might work...
rj
Yes they were, when Avery Brundage was running the show. He also kicked the Jews off the US team in Berlin, and fought to keep the female events "decorative"...he'd be right at home in China.
rj
It would take very roughly 1,750,000,000,000 light single-engine airplanes to cover the dry-land area of this planet -- or 15,500,000,000 for Nevada. Yes, it's a very big place. Aerial searches that find nothing are not in the least uncommon. An FAA district office I visited in Denver some years back had a wall map showing the last known positions of over thirty aircraft just in Colorado. Even Ohio, the most uniformly populated state, has one or two. Like to try an expensive science-fair project? Make a full-size cardboard effigy of a crashed airplane, have someone place it in a random spot in an area of, say, 20 x 20 miles, then charter an airplane and look for it.
It's spooky, really, but I have to think that there'll be a Slashdot story in a few years about how his bones and his plane were found using new Google Maps Streetview - Desert Edition.
There is an organized project trying to do that, right now.
rj
Scanner dealers used to stock books that listed the modifications necessary to enable those frequencies, and the modification usually consisted of clipping a jumper. On Radio Shack products, the jumper was often raised an eighth inch above the board for easy clipping...
rj
I wonder whether these adults are the generation of childhood-inoculated kids, grown up. When I was a kid, almost all of us got the measles at some point, and I had a heavy case that left my hearing with a cutoff around 8 KHz. By contrast, my son never had anything worse than the strep; when he was in his twenties, he went to a medical appointment in a building he hadn't visited before, and couldn't stay in the building because of a painfully loud sound emanating from the HVAC. He had to reschedule at a different office.
rj
OK, a circle of taxicab radius 1 would be, in Euclidean terms, a square of side sqrt(2) and area 2 -- unless you have a definition of "taxicab area".
rj
rj
Every F-16 crash is a hydrazine spill...
rj
rj
rj
Not Segway, Nautilus. Put an assembly of these suckers on all your major joints, dump the generated power into a resistor, and you have an exercise machine.
rj
Ummm, no. When was that?
There's a bit of folklore that says scientists in the early 19th century predicted that railroads would be unfeasible because the human body couldn't withstand 20 mph...and I suppose you could buy that story if you thought horses were a modern invention.
rj
The daily food consumption of a bird ranges from 10 percent of its body weight for an eagle to 200 percent for a hummingbird. Metabolism-powered flight is incredibly inefficient.
The reason for the lower consumption of large birds is that they don't fly that way any more than they have to. They can lock their wing joints in the spread position with no muscular exertion, glide effortlessly, and use soaring techniques (riding on rising air) to get energy, just as humans do with sailplanes (which, BTW, outperform them quite handily in every respect except the talent for finding that rising air).
rj