"one micro" is in the background range (which varies from place to place by about two orders of magnitude total), so 0.05 is a pretty good low that will probably never be reached. High enough that bananas won't set it off unless you bake it into a loaf of banana bread, but low enough to tell that you're in a normal area.
Umm, no. Typical daily background in 10 uSv. Which is 0.4 uSv/hour.
Seems to me that's it's too low on both the top end and bottom end. You couldn't use it for detecting real hotspots on the top end and it's so sensitive on the bottom end that even exposure to direct sunlight will have everyone panicking. I think it's more likely to cause irrational behavior than help.
Hmm, it detects any dosage above ~0.05 uSv per hour, eh?
A quick check of my XKCD radiation chart, and I find that a normal day's exposure is 10 uSv, which corresponds to an hourly rate of 0.4 uSv.
Soooo...this thing will be going off pretty much all the time?
Never mind that your own body's internal radiation will trigger it as well...
So, what you're trying to say, is that he really thought it was not round, and yet decided to sail WEST to get to India?
Look, it was well known that the planet was round long before Columbus was even born. It was thought to be smaller in diameter, which is why they thought the Americas were actually India at first.
Umm, no.
The approximate diameter of the Earth was known for about 2000 years before Columbus sailed.
It's more likely that Columbus simply lied in order to get the ships he needed.
Note also that there is a certain amount of evidence that the "New World" was known before Columbus sailed there - Flemish fishermen had been drying fish there for decades, the Vikings had been there, etc, etc...
think they mean the recording portion doesn't turn on unless the sensing portion detects a gunshot. A poorly worded sentence, to be sure. It's like your TV - even when your TV is "off", the small component that listens for your remote is still on.
TFA talks about an argument recorded by this system, associated with a shooting.
Unless the argument happened AFTER the shooting, it's unlikely they only start recording as a result of a shooting.
And it the argument DID happen after the shooting, I really can't see how it is even relevant to the case, unless the argument was on the order of "I can't believe you just shot that guy!! WTF?"
Which I don't believe, since I expect that if two people were wandering down the street, one pulled out a gun and shot someone else, then that two of them would be too busy running like hell to have an argument....
I never payed much mind to grammar nazis as I have pretty much always been aware that complaints about spelling and grammar are internet speak for "I agree 100% with the content of your post and don't want to admit it, so I will look for a typo instead."
Most of the time when I bother to be a grammar nazi, it's more in the lines of "how can someone be taken seriously as "of above average intellect" when they can't spell as well as your average fifth grader"?
In other words, enough basic grammar mistakes cause me to not even finish reading their comments, because they're obviously illiterate.
However, anyone who wants to think that illiteracy is the one true sign of a correct argument are welcome to do so...
P.S. My, I'm starting to get grouchy from going to doctor once or twice a week for the last two years....
To take the other side of the argument for grins...
YOU are a bunch of cells. So it wouldn't be murder to kill you....
Note my position on abortion is horribly pragmatic - we're going to dispose of excess and/or unwanted children one way or another. Might as well be abortion, which at least keeps it out of sight....
Interesting how they pay attention to pollution they can't control but ignore pollution they can control [thegrio.com]
Interesting link.
So, they've had an "epidemic of cancer since the early '80s".
The nuclear power plant they're blaming it on didn't exist until 1987.
The nuclear weapons facility they mention has been there since 1952.
So, they started getting cancer from a nuclear plant before it was built, while at the same time living next to another nuclear plant for 30 years without a cancer problem.
I read that modern US subs use convection cooling for the reactor at lower power settings, to keep noise down. Would this sub be too old for that to be the case?
The phrase I was taught to use when someone asked questions like that started with "I can neither confirm nor deny..."
As children they belonged to their father to be sold (for a dowry) to another man.
Umm, no.
What you're no doubt thinking of is a "bride price". Which wasn't all that common, historically.
"Dowry", on the other hand, was the goods and money that the bride brought to the marriage. Her share of their joint assets, essentially.
Note that, more often than not, the dowry was NOT the property of her husband, but something that she took with her in case of divorce/whatever (which was also more common historically than most modern Americans think it was).
Check out some of the lawsuits mentioned in various Norse sagas sometime, to get an idea of the amount of bickering over dowries that went on when a husband wanted to dump his wife, or a woman wanted to dump her husband....
The ship has breathing masks spread out in places and standard air type valves to plug them into all around the ship and you are trained how and where to find them in the dark. It is very scary when you have to unplug your mask, hold your breath and walk 10-20 feet in complete blinding smoke hoping you can find the next place to plug in your mask.
As I recall, one of the things I had to be able to do on the boat was to go from the forward end of the engineering spaces to the stern, wearing an EAB, with black plastic taped over the faceplate so I couldn't see anything.
Yes, remembering exactly how many steps it is to the next air connection is really tough when you're holding your breath and can't see....
Note, by the way, that a hull insulation fire means the entire compartment is completely full of opaque black smoke. If you can't fight the fire blindfolded with your head tethered to the nearest air connector, then you're screwed....
3 - There's this thing called a nuclear reactor. It's shut-down while in dry-dock but still requires power to keep it safe.
Not necessarily. Once the reactor has been shutdown long enough, it no longer requires power to cooling pumps to maintain temperature.
6 - If the reactor has a problem, you'll basically have Fukushima on your hands.
Umm, no.
If you're underway, and things go so completely south that every failsafe in the system fails unsafe, then your boat is going to sink.
If, on the other hand, you're in a drydock for an extended maintenance cycle, then the reactor has been shutdown long enough to be cold, and you won't even need the Main Cooling Pumps to keep things stable and safe.
Note that, whatever other problems they may have, Navy nuclear powerplants don't keep spent fuel rods laying around to cause problems...
This is why we put way too much time and money into the shuttle program, We wanted a "reusable" spacecraft like we see in Sci-Fi. Even though it is cheaper per flight to make disposable space craft.
No, the problem with Shuttle was that we built four, then stopped.
The whole point of reusability was to get economies of scale - open a Shuttle assembly line, build a couple-three every year, streamline the process of getting them ready for space, and launch weekly.
Or Daily.
Of course, the fact that we then, after building four Shuttles, stopped doing anything in space that even required ONE Shuttle didn't help the situation. Shuttle was only practical if we had a bunch of them, and we had something for them to do...
There have been articles on how space travel is now sustainable but the sole customer here is the government
Umm, no.
Trips to ISS, the sole customer is the government.
Alas, trips to the ISS aren't all there is. SpaceX has contracts for launch of several commsats already, which are generally paid for by private corporations.
Plus foreign governments and companies, of course.
Earth's orbit will become more and more elliptical over time and will eventually either slingshot Earth out of the orbit and directly into the Sun.
Earth's orbit will increase in radius (without becoming more elliptical) as the Sun's mass decreases, and when the Sun goes red giant, the Earth will vaporize.
Unless, of course, we move the Earth before then.
I'm not a rocket-scientist or anything, but as far as I can see if Earth was getting slingshot out of orbit Jupiter would in no way have enough mass to catch it.
I agree, you're not a rocket scientist.
Yes, it might be possible for Jupiter to catch Earth. EXCEPT that Jupiter's orbit will also be changing as Earth's orbit changes, and there's no special reason to believe that the two will ever come close enough together to interact meaningfully.
Slashdot Mirror
With a 16 digit number, it would be successful for at least 100,000,000 years, assuming EVERYONE was a researcher....
With a more realistic estimate of the number of researchers, the 16 digit number ought to be good for well beyond the lifetime of the Universe....
In which case, it must really suck that you get a small amount of radiation exposure from your own body, eh?
In fact, just about enough to trigger this phone....
Umm, no. Typical daily background in 10 uSv. Which is 0.4 uSv/hour.
Which is considerably above 0.05 uSv/hr.
Hmm, it detects any dosage above ~0.05 uSv per hour, eh?
A quick check of my XKCD radiation chart, and I find that a normal day's exposure is 10 uSv, which corresponds to an hourly rate of 0.4 uSv.
Soooo...this thing will be going off pretty much all the time?
Never mind that your own body's internal radiation will trigger it as well...
Yah, that'll reassure a lot of people.
Umm, no.
The approximate diameter of the Earth was known for about 2000 years before Columbus sailed.
It's more likely that Columbus simply lied in order to get the ships he needed.
Note also that there is a certain amount of evidence that the "New World" was known before Columbus sailed there - Flemish fishermen had been drying fish there for decades, the Vikings had been there, etc, etc...
Anytime something goes wrong in the government, they check to see whether they can cover it up. If not, then there is hell to pay.
Significant? $5.50 a month is hardly "significant".
Nor is the $30-and-change per year cost of gaming "significant"
Alright, that would work.
So, why do I have a hard time believing that the police are using a system that just throws data away?
TFA talks about an argument recorded by this system, associated with a shooting.
Unless the argument happened AFTER the shooting, it's unlikely they only start recording as a result of a shooting.
And it the argument DID happen after the shooting, I really can't see how it is even relevant to the case, unless the argument was on the order of "I can't believe you just shot that guy!! WTF?"
Which I don't believe, since I expect that if two people were wandering down the street, one pulled out a gun and shot someone else, then that two of them would be too busy running like hell to have an argument....
I agree.
Never thought I'd hear Leakey say something that stupid.
Most of the time when I bother to be a grammar nazi, it's more in the lines of "how can someone be taken seriously as "of above average intellect" when they can't spell as well as your average fifth grader"?
In other words, enough basic grammar mistakes cause me to not even finish reading their comments, because they're obviously illiterate.
However, anyone who wants to think that illiteracy is the one true sign of a correct argument are welcome to do so...
P.S. My, I'm starting to get grouchy from going to doctor once or twice a week for the last two years....
What that phrase usually means is "I want to be in charge".
To take the other side of the argument for grins...
YOU are a bunch of cells. So it wouldn't be murder to kill you....
Note my position on abortion is horribly pragmatic - we're going to dispose of excess and/or unwanted children one way or another. Might as well be abortion, which at least keeps it out of sight....
True.
On the other hand, only the USA had the US Civil War, which is what Memorial Day commemorated, back in the day.
It only later became a generic "all our war dead" sort of holiday.
And, of course, we also observe Veteran's Day (11 NOV)....
Interesting link.
So, they've had an "epidemic of cancer since the early '80s".
The nuclear power plant they're blaming it on didn't exist until 1987.
The nuclear weapons facility they mention has been there since 1952.
So, they started getting cancer from a nuclear plant before it was built, while at the same time living next to another nuclear plant for 30 years without a cancer problem.
Wow. Just, wow....
The phrase I was taught to use when someone asked questions like that started with "I can neither confirm nor deny..."
Umm, no.
What you're no doubt thinking of is a "bride price". Which wasn't all that common, historically.
"Dowry", on the other hand, was the goods and money that the bride brought to the marriage. Her share of their joint assets, essentially.
Note that, more often than not, the dowry was NOT the property of her husband, but something that she took with her in case of divorce/whatever (which was also more common historically than most modern Americans think it was).
Check out some of the lawsuits mentioned in various Norse sagas sometime, to get an idea of the amount of bickering over dowries that went on when a husband wanted to dump his wife, or a woman wanted to dump her husband....
Luckily Dragon wasn't designed to fulfill a government-specified purpose.
Other than the docking adapter, of course.
Neither was Falcon 9. Or Falcon 1.
As I recall, one of the things I had to be able to do on the boat was to go from the forward end of the engineering spaces to the stern, wearing an EAB, with black plastic taped over the faceplate so I couldn't see anything.
Yes, remembering exactly how many steps it is to the next air connection is really tough when you're holding your breath and can't see....
Note, by the way, that a hull insulation fire means the entire compartment is completely full of opaque black smoke. If you can't fight the fire blindfolded with your head tethered to the nearest air connector, then you're screwed....
Where HAVE I heard this before?
Oh, yeah, now I remember!
Me: We should go ahead and buy the 85MB HD for the new comp - we'd fill up a 40MB too fast..
the Wife: No, it'll be YEARS before we could fill up 40MB - why pay the extra couple hundred for space we'll never use?
We had a similar discussion a few years later, with the players swapped, when we were debating 300MB and 500 MB.
And again when we debated 2GB v. 3GB.
And 20GB v 50GB
And 500GB and 1TB....
Former Navy Nuke
Not necessarily. Once the reactor has been shutdown long enough, it no longer requires power to cooling pumps to maintain temperature.
Umm, no.
If you're underway, and things go so completely south that every failsafe in the system fails unsafe, then your boat is going to sink.
If, on the other hand, you're in a drydock for an extended maintenance cycle, then the reactor has been shutdown long enough to be cold, and you won't even need the Main Cooling Pumps to keep things stable and safe.
Note that, whatever other problems they may have, Navy nuclear powerplants don't keep spent fuel rods laying around to cause problems...
No, the problem with Shuttle was that we built four, then stopped.
The whole point of reusability was to get economies of scale - open a Shuttle assembly line, build a couple-three every year, streamline the process of getting them ready for space, and launch weekly.
Or Daily.
Of course, the fact that we then, after building four Shuttles, stopped doing anything in space that even required ONE Shuttle didn't help the situation. Shuttle was only practical if we had a bunch of them, and we had something for them to do...
And we had neither....
Umm, no.
Trips to ISS, the sole customer is the government.
Alas, trips to the ISS aren't all there is. SpaceX has contracts for launch of several commsats already, which are generally paid for by private corporations.
Plus foreign governments and companies, of course.
So, no, SpaceX isn't a company with one customer.
Earth's orbit will increase in radius (without becoming more elliptical) as the Sun's mass decreases, and when the Sun goes red giant, the Earth will vaporize.
Unless, of course, we move the Earth before then.
I agree, you're not a rocket scientist.
Yes, it might be possible for Jupiter to catch Earth. EXCEPT that Jupiter's orbit will also be changing as Earth's orbit changes, and there's no special reason to believe that the two will ever come close enough together to interact meaningfully.
Iran is, indeed, a "spacefaring nation".
It should be noted, though, that their largest booster is capable of lifting 1/11th as much as SpaceX's Falcon 1.
Note that that was Falcon ONE, not Falcon 9.
And North Korea may be next, but only because noone else is bothering to try.