I was in one of the first if not the first desegregated school system in the US but in the years prior to busing, we had only two black students in our school. My mother noticed that the school photo was a square grid of white kids with the black girl all by herself in the bottom right corner. We wondered if that was intentional re-segregation or whether some parents actually cut the poor girl out of their version of the photo. Later while working in the high school darkroom I noticed that sometimes I needed different exposures for the dark-skinned kids but even with the unforgiving dynamic range of tri-ex on print paper, I don't remember ever having to dodge or burn in photos of particular students based on their skin color. If exposure was off for the black kids, it was off for everyone.
Let me know when governments in the US and UK stop changing by election.
Let us know when US elections aren't influenced by billions of dollars in bribe-funded propaganda, hanging chads, voter registration fraud, gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, evoting bugs and fraud or the social media data mining that handed Obama the presidency over his pdf, inkjet-printer, email, web 1.0-focused Republican opponents.
Then ask yourself this: Imagine a low-level contractor such as Snowden who has access to much of your online activity, your list of friends, what you "like", what music and movies you download, what news you pay attention to, even these words we type and read on Slashdot... could that person influence an election? Clinton, Obama and the TLAs must answer that question for the American people. The obvious answer is yes which means the TLAs should be subject to the same campaign finance transparency and scrutiny as Grandma Jones is for her 10$ donation to the Iowa Tea Party.
This paragraph was not paid for by the RNC, DNC or Hillary Clinton election campaign committee. Your mileage may vary.
"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."
-- Commander William Adama - Battlestar Galactica
When a tornado swept through Barneville Wisconsin, it flattened nearly the entire town. But the water tower remained standing. Now water towers are pretty heavy but their center of gravity is obviously very high. Traditional construction techniques favor rectangular homes or homes with right angle flat sides. Tornado survivable buildings should be another shape, something more like the domes used in Antarctica.
Consumer digital cameras and portable camcorders were available before the takeoff/landing ban and they were used. But some of the high-sensitivity motion-capable DSLRs and EVIL cameras would be able to capture much more of the beauty of flight. It would nice to see these taken off the ban as they are mostly harmless. I've often thought of bringing a vintage wind-up (mechanical) 8mm or 16mm movie or 35mm film camera to photograph the interesting early part of a flight.
During later parts of the flight atmospheric haze makes photographs dull but I found that the camera's "infrared" RAW developing profile (fiddles with the red channel), really does cut through that haze. Some night flights (especially transatlantic great-circle routes over Greenlend) go far enough from cities and far enough north to give passengers a view of the northern lights. I've seen some airlines broadcast a view from a cockpit camera on one of the TV channels. It is a shame we're told to close our cabin windows so we end up watching some ridiculous B-movie when one of the most beautiful sights in the world is just outside
Somewhere where I saw a lot of lightning rods (possibly one of the theme parks in Florida, lightning capital of the world), I saw a dragonfly perched on the tip of every lightning rod. Now I know dragonflies like a high perch so they can see mosquitoes, but I began to wonder whether something else was going on. Were they attracted to the ions or ozone streaming from the lightning rods?
far less than 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the universe is known to us
I don't mean to be pedantic, but I can't help myself... that line is quite interesting. So, 1e-64? Let's say that we know the Earth, and compare to the visible universe. Wolfram Alpha, can we get some numbers to talk about?
So, I disagree with your statement, but if you're going by volume you were awfully close. Even if you restrict yourself to a volume that represents a couple meters over the landmass of the Earth, you still have an extra zero or two in there, especially with the "far less" bit.
That's not pedantism, this is Slashdot!;-) But why restrict your scale to assume we know everything about the earth and compare that to the visible universe? We don't know everything about the earth but let's assume we know all there is to know about a plank-length radius sphere (we don't but bear with me). The universe's volume/ plank volume is on the order of 3E60/(4/3*pi*(plank-length 1.6 × 10E -35)^3) =~ 5E-105. If you're talking mass, remember that we don't know all there is about a photon and its rest mass = 0. So the knowledge to ignorance ratio by mass is 2E30 / 0 = infinity.;-)
Those whom Heaven helps we call the Sons of Heaven. Those who would by learning attain to this seek for what they cannot learn. Those who would by effort attain to this, attempt what effort can never effect. Those who aim by reasoning to reach it reason where reasoning has no place. To know to stop where they cannot arrive by means of knowledge is the highest attainment. Those who cannot do this will be destroyed on the lathe of Heaven. -- Chuang Tzu
When you have faith, true faith you see the weird man-made scaffolding of intelligent design theories as unnecessary and counterproductive. Where God seems to conflict with science some choose to believe that one is right and the other is wrong when the truth is that both are in harmony and it is our understanding of both that is flawed. Those who read only their own ephemeral rules, theories and prejudices into the bible have not accepted the spirit which is necessary to guide each of us through the poetry of God's creation whenever it seems to conflict with the logic of what we think we know.
A faithful person also knows (as any honest scientist should know), that those "gaps" where God must exist are enormous. The amount of her universe(s) we truly understand is vanishingly small, far less than 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the universe is known to us. What we know is certainly smaller than ourselves, our brain, a leaf of grass, , DNA, atoms, quarks, strings and everything. While we've come to learn more about each of these things with each passing day, we should accept that a scientist 50 or 100 years from now would look at the social constructs we know as scientific beliefs as being remarkably simplistic. Even for agnostics and atheists who choose to disbelieve in a universal creator with more embedded intelligence than the 3 pounds of chemicals within their brains, the Judeo-Christian bible contains remnants of the human story which pre-dates agriculture and civilization. In this age of short attention spans we need such an anchor to counter-balance pop-cultural fads and give us a longer view of humanity.
Nothing can be done to stop it. It's not like I'm going to steal her camera and delete her pictures. So, I'm in their system, despite being really well known as the paranoid "they're out to get me" guy to pretty much everyone who knows me.
No matter how careful we are individually, the ignorance of others certainly can affect us strongly these days...
Threaten to sue the person who posted your photo without your signing a release. Make it expensive for individuals to violate your privacy. Spread the word on Facebook and elsewhere that destroying the privacy of individuals is a potentially costly exercise. Learn from the MPAA/RIAA and other intellectual content cartels that using your image or quoting you on FB without a release is costly. I charge $100 per IP address that could potentially view my image and given that IPV4 has 4.3 billion addresses... (I can hardly wait for IPV6.)
No this is not an idle threat. Given the US's primary industry (lawsuits), its only a matter of time before you'll have to buy Facebook insurance to cover the possibility that you'll accidentally post something that could be taken as defamatory, could infringe on MPAA/RIAA rights or infringe on a person's privacy or defame their character. I suspect when the average tweet costs $40 in legal fees, Facebook will die quietly.
Begin with passive infrared (PIR) sensors and when they is triggered, enable your narrowly-focused pulsed-infrared laser illumination system so your cameras can get a high res look at what triggered the PIR. Your image recognizer will then compare with previous captures to determine whether the movement was caused by a squirrel, blowing leaves, or a band of Ninjas. If it is Ninjas, turn on the tri-color visible laser illumination system. Use an intensity capable of seeing or burning through the black Ninja clothing so that a good color photograph can be captured and sent to your local rent-a-cop or SWAT team. Optional spectrometer will log the absorption lines of the vaporized Ninja clothing to see if they show any traces of drugs or explosives. Your visible-light lasers will be polarized and pulsed in a pseudo-random NRZ pattern so that the synchronized Kerr cells in your own bedroom window can keep out the glare while allowing you to enjoy the beauty of a starry night sky. The visible laser wavelengths will be selected so that a multi-layer interference filter can be installed on each of your neighbor's windows in order to block the light.
Mod parent up. We now have flexibility far beyond our 19th century lighting (lighting==security && more == better) mindset. Ask yourself:
Why do you need a light? Is it intended to scare people away? In most cases it doesn't and some studies have found that it can attract certain kinds of crime.
If it is intended to reveal an intruder, who is watching? Wouldn't motion-triggered lights make their movements more obvious?
Is it necessary to have these lights on 24/7 (as the morons in my country do) or just during darkness? Or just when you're walking from your car to your house?
Is full spectrum necessary? If it's merely to provide lights for cameras, infrared is far more effective, watch the intruder stumble in the dark!
If it's aesthetic lighting, are you simply pimping your house or is it subtle and artistic?
Is it illuminating something that needs to be illuminated or is it deepening shadows adding glare and reducing visibility?
Is crime inversely proportional to wattage/candlepower? If not, what is the optimal lighting level for your needs?
There is no such thing as "light pollution". That's not to say that shining a floodlight through a neighbours window isn't inconsiderate, but it's not "pollution".
I don't know what your definition of pollution is, but excess outdoor lighting is ugly, it's unwanted, it can cause adverse change (everything from sleepness nights to wildlife deaths to increased levels of vandalism and other crime. And it has detrimental effects on health including a carcinogenic effect. I call it pollution, you call it light trespass or whatever you like but I suspect there is a level of excess light that you would call pollution. Can your neighbor shine floodlights into your window? How about stroboscopic flashing lights tuned to disorient and possibly trigger seizures? How about lasers? I'm not joking, given the fact that running a laser advertisement is now practically free, expect to see the night sky filled with McDonalds ads and other annoyances. If we continue to treat light pollution as a non-issue, our beautiful night sky will be replaced with pop-up ads.
The proper solution to the OP's problem is to:
1) Stop shining your lights in the direction of your neighbour
2) Use a motion-sensing light so that it at least only turns on when it needs to be
I agree with you here. This is a very good start. Ask yourself, "Is the light necessary? Is it necessary to run continuously? Would I like it if all of my neighbors had the same light? What if millions of people did exactly what you are doing, would the environmental impact be worth it? Does it provide even and useful illumination of an important area or does it provide glare and deepen shadows?"
If you do need lights, LED lights provide many advantages over older outdoor lighting technology. They are smaller than discharge tubes so can be focused better. They can be placed where you need them and they consume far less power than incandescent lights. They can be PWM dimmed, they can be cycled instantaneously (opposed to the 10-20 minute warm-up of sodium/mercury discharge lights) without significant reduction in life. Rural areas could turn off streetlights unless they detect someone (a car or a mobile phone) in the area.
This smacks of intellectual dishonesty. When you hear a politician describe themselves as "pro-choice" do you actually find yourself confused as to what issue they're referring?
It's also interesting that my use of this term has caused so many to jump to irrational conclusions about where I fall on the spectrum of beliefs about this issue.
There is debate about this, and at least here in Europe, those with it are more and more living their own lives. The 17-year old daughter of a colleague has it - and she is not only learning the trade of a baker: she is preparing to live alone, in an apartment in the middle of the city. She already manages her own money and her own relationship with various administrative bodies. With her father's support, but still - this would have been unthinkable even ten years ago.
This is also happening in Australia.
They are teaching people with disabilities to live on their own, not just in halfway houses but on their own, managing most of their own affairs. Some are down to 1 hour a week with social workers, stuff the cant take care of on their own they know to save for that time...
Exactly. The US is cleansing itself and future generations of people who suffer DS at the same time that services and support for these people to live productive and happy lives are better than they've ever been.
ortunately we did the tests merely to inform ourselves of what special preparation we might need to make. Abortion for eugenic purposes is not legal here in Ireland as it is in the US.
Eugenics? Really? It's not like these people are aborting fetuses because they don't have blue eyes, or aren't going to be tall enough to play in the NBA. This is a serious health condition.
Eugenics (\yü-je-niks\) is the bio-social movement which advocates practices to improve the genetic composition of a population, usually a human population.
Eugenics needn't be about the NBA or eye color. Down syndrome tests and abortions have cleansed future generations of a particular kind of people. People who are typically gentle, loving and incapable of lying.
A child with Down Syndrome will not only be a terrible burden on their parents, it's also a child that will never have the opportunity to lead a normal life. I absolutely love my parents, and was lucky to have a great childhood under their love and care. Still, the happiest days of my life involved leaving them...
The happiest days of your life. Surely you don't believe you have the only valid kind of happiness?
Why bring someone into the world that will never be able to experience life to the fullest?
Frankly, in my position, a 1 in 40 chance would be more than enough to justify an abortion, if that was all the information that could be gotten...
What about the 1 chance in 80 of giving birth to a child with autistic spectrum disorder or 1 chance in 25 of giving birth to a child with bipolar disorder? Both of these conditions can be a more severe disability than DS But as there is no accurate per-natal test for these, wouldn't sterilization be the sensible thing be to do... for everyone?
we may all owe a debt of gratitude to people with Down Syndrome. Studying the characteristics of this syndrome may help us understand Alzheimers and studying the fact that cancer is much rarer in people Down Syndrome may help us understand and cure this terrible disease.
And we owe the holocaust for a great many medical advances, thanks to the unethical experiments done on the Jewish prisoners. It doesn't justify the suffering. Similarly, I don't think the gains you are speaking of justifies the burden on the parents or the child that has to live with Down Syndrome.
Have you ever met anyone with Down Syndrome or Mosaic Down Syndrome? Are you really saying that allowing them to live is comparable to experimenting on Jews in concentration camps? This is the sad thing about the fact that Americans have virtually cleansed future generations of a kind of person who someone decided is undesirable. Too few of these people and their loved ones are here to correct your generation's terribly negative assumptions about the value of their human lives. Yes, Down syndrome is a burden but any parent who isn't prepared to care for a child for at least 1/3rd of their lives should not have children of any sort. There are a number of disorders which are much more of a burden. In my neighborhood there are several people with Down syndrome, two of my friends were born blind as were other, another was born with MD and countless other friends have a disposition to bipolar disorders. These good people are able to think, create, love and enjoy their lives which in many cases are more independent and just as as the lives of others.
A virus-delivered multicell cure for single-gene disorders is a real possiblity given experiments with colorblindness. We should celebrate this, but I shudder to think of a world where a 1 chance in 40 of a disorder causes us to ignore the humanity of the person with the disorder.
The take no prisoners battle between the anti-life and anti-choice people have left us in a state of
Anti-Life? Seriously?! Could you use a more charged term? Try Pro-Choice. Just because someone believes in the right to choose doesn't mean they will use it and they certainly don't try to force it on others unlike the group trying to ban abortion.
Yes I deliberately used a term that was just as charged as the common "anti-choice" term that you've heard so much on news media and in pop political-culture, you're immune to the fact that it's an equally charged term.
The phrase "Pro Choice" is not descriptive. (Pro choice about what? iPod vs Android, Republican vs Democrat?, Beans vs Carrots?) Nor does the phrase "Pro Choice" accurately describe the plight of women in places where abortion is not only permissible, it is mandatory. It also ignores the fact that there are pro-abortion individuals (abusive boyfriends/husbands/parents) who are decidedly against giving a woman the choice to let her unborn child live.
But we already have a treatment: The prenatal test for downs is reliable, usually noninvasive (Amniocentris is used only to confirm an ultrasound result) and early in pregnancy. If you get a dud, discard and try again.
The only problem comes from the religious people who believe everything with a human genome is magical or sacred.
See my OP. No the neuchal ultrasound evaluation is not particularly reliable. Combined with a maternal blood test it becomes somewhat more reliable but anyone who would use either of these to justify life/death decisions is an idiot, whatever their eugenic good intentions are. Even if these tests were 100% accurate, we have the problem of medical incompetence. A nurse read our son's neuchal/blood test results of 1/40 (2.5%) chance of Down Syndrome and presented it as a 40% chance. This nurse previously worked in well respected Boston hospital and heaven knows how many aborted babies were the result of her mathematical illiteracy. Thankfully the country where she now works (Ireland) doesn't allow abortion for eugenics as the US does.
Well, if you'll put on your cyncial hat, the in-utero treatment you wish for already exists:
plannedparenthood.com
In America, about 90% of diagnosed DS fetuses are aborted. That is an interesting percentage, since polls indicate that more that 20% of Americans think abortion should be illegal under all circumstances.
Since we're talking statistics, amniocentesis, the invasive test for Down Syndrome, has a 0.75% chance of ending the pregnancy so we opted for a lower risk combination of an ultrasound scan and blood test. The results (along with our age and other factors) gave a 1 in 40 (2.5%) chance of a baby with Down Syndrome. But the nurse who read the results to us didn't say once chance in 40 and she didn't say 2.5% chance. She said 40% chance! (Is mathematic literacy a medical training requirement.) Fortunately we did the tests merely to inform ourselves of what special preparation we might need to make. Abortion for eugenic purposes is not legal here in Ireland as it is in the US. Unfortunately this same nurse trained in Boston. Heaven only knows how many pregnancies were ended based on this. We're thankful for a healthy little boy who doesn't have Down Syndrome but we may all owe a debt of gratitude to people with Down Syndrome. Studying the characteristics of this syndrome may help us understand Alzheimers and studying the fact that cancer is much rarer in people Down Syndrome may help us understand and cure this terrible disease.
The take no prisoners battle between the anti-life and anti-choice people have left us in a state of anti-science, anti-compassion and anti-love.
What does Oracle even do anymore? All they've been doing lately is killing off products/projects. Same with HP.
Yes, and IBM and Apple and Google... US tax, SEC and patent law as well as Fed/Obama helicopter drops assures that Goliath companies grow by absorbing smaller companies, not by innovation. And the overhead of a Goliath company assures that anything that doesn't add half a billion or more to the balance sheet will be killed. The good news is that this leaves huge holes in the market which can be filled by smaller companies. Sun Ray has been around for more than a decade and if you've seen it in action, you might wonder whether like so many other computer technologies, it was ahead of its time. For a decade it has been ready to save millions of dollars in energy and IT support costs and it would be a perfect fit healthcare, education, government and many corporate uses. Lets hope that bad corporate decisions and bad government policy are not enough to bury a good idea forever.
Too many years in sciences, I read Nina's last known position as decimal. I think the alert was in DD-MM so -33 Degrees, 50 minutes and 169 degrees 41 minutes which is -33.8333 169.68333. It also isn't as far south as in that photobucket image I posted earlier, but is very near the center of this MODIS image for June 4th. If you go to this website you can zoom in and out and change the date and be amazed at how rapidly this low forms a circular storm and moves east leaving a whispy trail of high-wind clouds. The best resolution MODIS imagery is around 250mm so little chance of seeing a boat but NASA/NOAA night imagery might be able to pick up ship lights if they are particularly bright.
I just noticed the date of the Pan-Pan alert. I wonder if the standard for PanPan broadcasts is Zulu time or local time and if so, what locale? Anyway by midnight June 4th Z, the storm was right over them and then sending them south should have reduced their time in the storm but it would have risked giving them a fierce headwind and driving them back to New Zealand if they were disabled.
Current from Australia
Maritime Safety Information current at 300000 UTC JUN 13
Issued by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia)
Part 1. Distress, Urgency, CQ and Safety Messages:
PAN PAN
FM RCC AUSTRALIA 260143Z JUN 2013 AUSSAR 2013/4000
TASMAN SEA
RCC AUSTRALIA REQUESTS INFORMATION REGARDING SIGHTINGS OR COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE WHITE AND GREEN 60FT SCHOONER RIGGED VESESL 'NINA'. THE VESSEL HAS 7 POB, AND WAS ON A VOYAGE FROM OPUA NEW ZEALAND TO NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA, LAST KNOWN POSITION 33-50S 169-41E 04 JUNE 2013.
REPORTS TO THIS STATION OR RCC AUSTRALIA VIA TELEPHONE +61262306811 INMARSAT THROUGH LES BURUM (POR 212,IOR 312), SPECIAL ACCESS CODE (SAC) 39, HF DSC 005030001, EMAIL: rccaus@amsa.gov.au OR BY FAX +61262306868.
NNNN
So this is why they're still looking in NZ. Last known position was north of the center of the storm which means she would have been initially blown east if she'd been dis-masted or her crew was otherwise set adrift on June 3-4th. One thing I don't understand is given this position, why would they have been guided to sail south, towards the center of the storm in order to "get out of this nasty weather"?
Notice that they aren't too far from an intense white spot (thunderhead?) in this photo. Could they have been guided from inside a relatively localized thunderstorm towards the eye of the storm?
Good thread. If someone Evi loved and respected were lost at sea, she might want to help organize a crowdsourced search and rescue effort like the one used in search of Jim Gray, Tyler Wright and Steve Fosset. What we need is data. As someone who has sailed for decades, I won't underestimate the scope of the effort. VHF radio doesn't reach much beyond the horizon and a mast of a ship that size wouldn't be seen or return a RADAR reflection more than about 7 miles under ideal conditions. So if EPIRB, HF and Satellite are down, the ship only has a 6 or 7 mile radius of observability, less if it has been dis-masted. (Somewhat likely given the conditions.) But the Tasman sea is huge so we need to use data to focus the search effort. The coast guard has a protocol which does this, based on tidal and weather patterns. But we can extend this based on the particular kind of boat, how well it sails into the wind, how fast it is, the captain and crew's behavior and the recommendations to go south of a low on June 3rd, 2013. Apparently GPS coordinates weren't part of Evi's last broadcast. But we can take the same reasonable assumption that I've see rescue people speak of, that they were in th center of the storm. Here is a weather satellite photo of the area on June 3rd. The storm seemed strongest at about 38S 165E. If they were in the thick of it by June 3rd, they were already pulled south of the rhumb-line to their destination, they might have drifted or been forced even further south. The storm grew stronger for at least another day as it moved east on June 4th. If they were ahead of (West of) the storm, they were almost certainly pushed north and west because lows circulate clockwise in the southern hemisphere. If they were behind it they may have been pushed south but I think this is less likely since they should have been already pretty far from NZ and the storm was moving east as they were moving west.
Here are the weather satellite photos for the rest of June. But what we need are high resolution satellite or aircraft photos. Unfortunately this part of the world at this time of year is covered in clouds much of the time. Even the recon mission photos might not show much. So like the guy who looks for his keys under the streetlight, we might be limited in where we can crowdsource search. If someone were really industrious, they'd send out drones or balloons equipped with high resolution cameras. It's still a needle in a haystack, but its something. And if it helps bring these people home, it's worth it. If you ever want to read a harrowing story about someone lost at sea, only a few dozen miles from shore in the relatively tiny Irish sea, read the story of Fastnet 79, "Left for Dead." Evi, we're not giving up on you or the rest of the crew so keep hopeful and focus on yours and your friend's survival.
Surely Mortgage Investors Corporation pulled in far more than $7.5 Million with this fraud. And they certainly caused more than $7.5 Million in damages to their victims and the rest society by blowing phone spam into the property bubble. What's to stop them or anyone else from doing it again? This should have been a criminal case. Prison for the CEO and board of directors would be more of a deterrent for corporate crimes.
Slashdot Mirror
I was in one of the first if not the first desegregated school system in the US but in the years prior to busing, we had only two black students in our school. My mother noticed that the school photo was a square grid of white kids with the black girl all by herself in the bottom right corner. We wondered if that was intentional re-segregation or whether some parents actually cut the poor girl out of their version of the photo. Later while working in the high school darkroom I noticed that sometimes I needed different exposures for the dark-skinned kids but even with the unforgiving dynamic range of tri-ex on print paper, I don't remember ever having to dodge or burn in photos of particular students based on their skin color. If exposure was off for the black kids, it was off for everyone.
Let me know when governments in the US and UK stop changing by election.
Let us know when US elections aren't influenced by billions of dollars in bribe-funded propaganda, hanging chads, voter registration fraud, gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, evoting bugs and fraud or the social media data mining that handed Obama the presidency over his pdf, inkjet-printer, email, web 1.0-focused Republican opponents.
Then ask yourself this: Imagine a low-level contractor such as Snowden who has access to much of your online activity, your list of friends, what you "like", what music and movies you download, what news you pay attention to, even these words we type and read on Slashdot... could that person influence an election? Clinton, Obama and the TLAs must answer that question for the American people. The obvious answer is yes which means the TLAs should be subject to the same campaign finance transparency and scrutiny as Grandma Jones is for her 10$ donation to the Iowa Tea Party.
This paragraph was not paid for by the RNC, DNC or Hillary Clinton election campaign committee. Your mileage may vary.
"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."
-- Commander William Adama - Battlestar Galactica
When a tornado swept through Barneville Wisconsin, it flattened nearly the entire town. But the water tower remained standing. Now water towers are pretty heavy but their center of gravity is obviously very high. Traditional construction techniques favor rectangular homes or homes with right angle flat sides. Tornado survivable buildings should be another shape, something more like the domes used in Antarctica.
Consumer digital cameras and portable camcorders were available before the takeoff/landing ban and they were used. But some of the high-sensitivity motion-capable DSLRs and EVIL cameras would be able to capture much more of the beauty of flight. It would nice to see these taken off the ban as they are mostly harmless. I've often thought of bringing a vintage wind-up (mechanical) 8mm or 16mm movie or 35mm film camera to photograph the interesting early part of a flight.
During later parts of the flight atmospheric haze makes photographs dull but I found that the camera's "infrared" RAW developing profile (fiddles with the red channel), really does cut through that haze. Some night flights (especially transatlantic great-circle routes over Greenlend) go far enough from cities and far enough north to give passengers a view of the northern lights. I've seen some airlines broadcast a view from a cockpit camera on one of the TV channels. It is a shame we're told to close our cabin windows so we end up watching some ridiculous B-movie when one of the most beautiful sights in the world is just outside
Somewhere where I saw a lot of lightning rods (possibly one of the theme parks in Florida, lightning capital of the world), I saw a dragonfly perched on the tip of every lightning rod. Now I know dragonflies like a high perch so they can see mosquitoes, but I began to wonder whether something else was going on. Were they attracted to the ions or ozone streaming from the lightning rods?
far less than 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the universe is known to us
I don't mean to be pedantic, but I can't help myself... that line is quite interesting. So, 1e-64? Let's say that we know the Earth, and compare to the visible universe. Wolfram Alpha, can we get some numbers to talk about?
By mass we're talking about 2e-30 By mass
By volume we're talking about 3e-60 By volume
So, I disagree with your statement, but if you're going by volume you were awfully close. Even if you restrict yourself to a volume that represents a couple meters over the landmass of the Earth, you still have an extra zero or two in there, especially with the "far less" bit.
That's not pedantism, this is Slashdot! ;-) But why restrict your scale to assume we know everything about the earth and compare that to the visible universe? We don't know everything about the earth but let's assume we know all there is to know about a plank-length radius sphere (we don't but bear with me). The universe's volume/ plank volume is on the order of 3E60/(4/3*pi*(plank-length 1.6 × 10E -35)^3) =~ 5E-105. If you're talking mass, remember that we don't know all there is about a photon and its rest mass = 0. So the knowledge to ignorance ratio by mass is 2E30 / 0 = infinity. ;-)
Those whom Heaven helps we call the Sons of Heaven. Those who would by learning attain to this seek for what they cannot learn. Those who would by effort attain to this, attempt what effort can never effect. Those who aim by reasoning to reach it reason where reasoning has no place. To know to stop where they cannot arrive by means of knowledge is the highest attainment. Those who cannot do this will be destroyed on the lathe of Heaven. -- Chuang Tzu
When you have faith, true faith you see the weird man-made scaffolding of intelligent design theories as unnecessary and counterproductive. Where God seems to conflict with science some choose to believe that one is right and the other is wrong when the truth is that both are in harmony and it is our understanding of both that is flawed. Those who read only their own ephemeral rules, theories and prejudices into the bible have not accepted the spirit which is necessary to guide each of us through the poetry of God's creation whenever it seems to conflict with the logic of what we think we know.
A faithful person also knows (as any honest scientist should know), that those "gaps" where God must exist are enormous. The amount of her universe(s) we truly understand is vanishingly small, far less than 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the universe is known to us. What we know is certainly smaller than ourselves, our brain, a leaf of grass, , DNA, atoms, quarks, strings and everything. While we've come to learn more about each of these things with each passing day, we should accept that a scientist 50 or 100 years from now would look at the social constructs we know as scientific beliefs as being remarkably simplistic. Even for agnostics and atheists who choose to disbelieve in a universal creator with more embedded intelligence than the 3 pounds of chemicals within their brains, the Judeo-Christian bible contains remnants of the human story which pre-dates agriculture and civilization. In this age of short attention spans we need such an anchor to counter-balance pop-cultural fads and give us a longer view of humanity.
...
Nothing can be done to stop it. It's not like I'm going to steal her camera and delete her pictures. So, I'm in their system, despite being really well known as the paranoid "they're out to get me" guy to pretty much everyone who knows me.
No matter how careful we are individually, the ignorance of others certainly can affect us strongly these days...
Threaten to sue the person who posted your photo without your signing a release. Make it expensive for individuals to violate your privacy. Spread the word on Facebook and elsewhere that destroying the privacy of individuals is a potentially costly exercise. Learn from the MPAA/RIAA and other intellectual content cartels that using your image or quoting you on FB without a release is costly. I charge $100 per IP address that could potentially view my image and given that IPV4 has 4.3 billion addresses... (I can hardly wait for IPV6.)
No this is not an idle threat. Given the US's primary industry (lawsuits), its only a matter of time before you'll have to buy Facebook insurance to cover the possibility that you'll accidentally post something that could be taken as defamatory, could infringe on MPAA/RIAA rights or infringe on a person's privacy or defame their character. I suspect when the average tweet costs $40 in legal fees, Facebook will die quietly.
Begin with passive infrared (PIR) sensors and when they is triggered, enable your narrowly-focused pulsed-infrared laser illumination system so your cameras can get a high res look at what triggered the PIR. Your image recognizer will then compare with previous captures to determine whether the movement was caused by a squirrel, blowing leaves, or a band of Ninjas. If it is Ninjas, turn on the tri-color visible laser illumination system. Use an intensity capable of seeing or burning through the black Ninja clothing so that a good color photograph can be captured and sent to your local rent-a-cop or SWAT team. Optional spectrometer will log the absorption lines of the vaporized Ninja clothing to see if they show any traces of drugs or explosives. Your visible-light lasers will be polarized and pulsed in a pseudo-random NRZ pattern so that the synchronized Kerr cells in your own bedroom window can keep out the glare while allowing you to enjoy the beauty of a starry night sky. The visible laser wavelengths will be selected so that a multi-layer interference filter can be installed on each of your neighbor's windows in order to block the light.
There is no such thing as "light pollution". That's not to say that shining a floodlight through a neighbours window isn't inconsiderate, but it's not "pollution".
I don't know what your definition of pollution is, but excess outdoor lighting is ugly, it's unwanted, it can cause adverse change (everything from sleepness nights to wildlife deaths to increased levels of vandalism and other crime. And it has detrimental effects on health including a carcinogenic effect. I call it pollution, you call it light trespass or whatever you like but I suspect there is a level of excess light that you would call pollution. Can your neighbor shine floodlights into your window? How about stroboscopic flashing lights tuned to disorient and possibly trigger seizures? How about lasers? I'm not joking, given the fact that running a laser advertisement is now practically free, expect to see the night sky filled with McDonalds ads and other annoyances. If we continue to treat light pollution as a non-issue, our beautiful night sky will be replaced with pop-up ads.
The proper solution to the OP's problem is to:
1) Stop shining your lights in the direction of your neighbour 2) Use a motion-sensing light so that it at least only turns on when it needs to be
I agree with you here. This is a very good start. Ask yourself, "Is the light necessary? Is it necessary to run continuously? Would I like it if all of my neighbors had the same light? What if millions of people did exactly what you are doing, would the environmental impact be worth it? Does it provide even and useful illumination of an important area or does it provide glare and deepen shadows?"
If you do need lights, LED lights provide many advantages over older outdoor lighting technology. They are smaller than discharge tubes so can be focused better. They can be placed where you need them and they consume far less power than incandescent lights. They can be PWM dimmed, they can be cycled instantaneously (opposed to the 10-20 minute warm-up of sodium/mercury discharge lights) without significant reduction in life. Rural areas could turn off streetlights unless they detect someone (a car or a mobile phone) in the area.
This smacks of intellectual dishonesty. When you hear a politician describe themselves as "pro-choice" do you actually find yourself confused as to what issue they're referring?
No. But by using a word that is a mirror image of the acceptable newspeak, I'm drawing attention to the use of language to reframe thinking (brainwash?) about abortion. It looks like it worked.
It's also interesting that my use of this term has caused so many to jump to irrational conclusions about where I fall on the spectrum of beliefs about this issue.
There is debate about this, and at least here in Europe, those with it are more and more living their own lives. The 17-year old daughter of a colleague has it - and she is not only learning the trade of a baker: she is preparing to live alone, in an apartment in the middle of the city. She already manages her own money and her own relationship with various administrative bodies. With her father's support, but still - this would have been unthinkable even ten years ago.
This is also happening in Australia. They are teaching people with disabilities to live on their own, not just in halfway houses but on their own, managing most of their own affairs. Some are down to 1 hour a week with social workers, stuff the cant take care of on their own they know to save for that time...
Exactly. The US is cleansing itself and future generations of people who suffer DS at the same time that services and support for these people to live productive and happy lives are better than they've ever been.
ortunately we did the tests merely to inform ourselves of what special preparation we might need to make. Abortion for eugenic purposes is not legal here in Ireland as it is in the US.
Eugenics? Really? It's not like these people are aborting fetuses because they don't have blue eyes, or aren't going to be tall enough to play in the NBA. This is a serious health condition.
Eugenics (\yü-je-niks\) is the bio-social movement which advocates practices to improve the genetic composition of a population, usually a human population.
Eugenics needn't be about the NBA or eye color. Down syndrome tests and abortions have cleansed future generations of a particular kind of people. People who are typically gentle, loving and incapable of lying.
A child with Down Syndrome will not only be a terrible burden on their parents, it's also a child that will never have the opportunity to lead a normal life. I absolutely love my parents, and was lucky to have a great childhood under their love and care. Still, the happiest days of my life involved leaving them...
The happiest days of your life. Surely you don't believe you have the only valid kind of happiness?
Why bring someone into the world that will never be able to experience life to the fullest?
Frankly, in my position, a 1 in 40 chance would be more than enough to justify an abortion, if that was all the information that could be gotten...
What about the 1 chance in 80 of giving birth to a child with autistic spectrum disorder or 1 chance in 25 of giving birth to a child with bipolar disorder? Both of these conditions can be a more severe disability than DS But as there is no accurate per-natal test for these, wouldn't sterilization be the sensible thing be to do... for everyone?
we may all owe a debt of gratitude to people with Down Syndrome. Studying the characteristics of this syndrome may help us understand Alzheimers and studying the fact that cancer is much rarer in people Down Syndrome may help us understand and cure this terrible disease.
And we owe the holocaust for a great many medical advances, thanks to the unethical experiments done on the Jewish prisoners. It doesn't justify the suffering. Similarly, I don't think the gains you are speaking of justifies the burden on the parents or the child that has to live with Down Syndrome.
Have you ever met anyone with Down Syndrome or Mosaic Down Syndrome? Are you really saying that allowing them to live is comparable to experimenting on Jews in concentration camps? This is the sad thing about the fact that Americans have virtually cleansed future generations of a kind of person who someone decided is undesirable. Too few of these people and their loved ones are here to correct your generation's terribly negative assumptions about the value of their human lives. Yes, Down syndrome is a burden but any parent who isn't prepared to care for a child for at least 1/3rd of their lives should not have children of any sort. There are a number of disorders which are much more of a burden. In my neighborhood there are several people with Down syndrome, two of my friends were born blind as were other, another was born with MD and countless other friends have a disposition to bipolar disorders. These good people are able to think, create, love and enjoy their lives which in many cases are more independent and just as as the lives of others.
A virus-delivered multicell cure for single-gene disorders is a real possiblity given experiments with colorblindness. We should celebrate this, but I shudder to think of a world where a 1 chance in 40 of a disorder causes us to ignore the humanity of the person with the disorder.
The take no prisoners battle between the anti-life and anti-choice people have left us in a state of
Anti-Life? Seriously?! Could you use a more charged term? Try Pro-Choice. Just because someone believes in the right to choose doesn't mean they will use it and they certainly don't try to force it on others unlike the group trying to ban abortion.
Yes I deliberately used a term that was just as charged as the common "anti-choice" term that you've heard so much on news media and in pop political-culture, you're immune to the fact that it's an equally charged term.
The phrase "Pro Choice" is not descriptive. (Pro choice about what? iPod vs Android, Republican vs Democrat?, Beans vs Carrots?) Nor does the phrase "Pro Choice" accurately describe the plight of women in places where abortion is not only permissible, it is mandatory. It also ignores the fact that there are pro-abortion individuals (abusive boyfriends/husbands/parents) who are decidedly against giving a woman the choice to let her unborn child live.
But we already have a treatment: The prenatal test for downs is reliable, usually noninvasive (Amniocentris is used only to confirm an ultrasound result) and early in pregnancy. If you get a dud, discard and try again.
The only problem comes from the religious people who believe everything with a human genome is magical or sacred.
See my OP. No the neuchal ultrasound evaluation is not particularly reliable. Combined with a maternal blood test it becomes somewhat more reliable but anyone who would use either of these to justify life/death decisions is an idiot, whatever their eugenic good intentions are. Even if these tests were 100% accurate, we have the problem of medical incompetence. A nurse read our son's neuchal/blood test results of 1/40 (2.5%) chance of Down Syndrome and presented it as a 40% chance. This nurse previously worked in well respected Boston hospital and heaven knows how many aborted babies were the result of her mathematical illiteracy. Thankfully the country where she now works (Ireland) doesn't allow abortion for eugenics as the US does.
Well, if you'll put on your cyncial hat, the in-utero treatment you wish for already exists: plannedparenthood.com
In America, about 90% of diagnosed DS fetuses are aborted. That is an interesting percentage, since polls indicate that more that 20% of Americans think abortion should be illegal under all circumstances.
Since we're talking statistics, amniocentesis, the invasive test for Down Syndrome, has a 0.75% chance of ending the pregnancy so we opted for a lower risk combination of an ultrasound scan and blood test. The results (along with our age and other factors) gave a 1 in 40 (2.5%) chance of a baby with Down Syndrome. But the nurse who read the results to us didn't say once chance in 40 and she didn't say 2.5% chance. She said 40% chance! (Is mathematic literacy a medical training requirement.) Fortunately we did the tests merely to inform ourselves of what special preparation we might need to make. Abortion for eugenic purposes is not legal here in Ireland as it is in the US. Unfortunately this same nurse trained in Boston. Heaven only knows how many pregnancies were ended based on this. We're thankful for a healthy little boy who doesn't have Down Syndrome but we may all owe a debt of gratitude to people with Down Syndrome. Studying the characteristics of this syndrome may help us understand Alzheimers and studying the fact that cancer is much rarer in people Down Syndrome may help us understand and cure this terrible disease.
The take no prisoners battle between the anti-life and anti-choice people have left us in a state of anti-science, anti-compassion and anti-love.
What does Oracle even do anymore? All they've been doing lately is killing off products/projects. Same with HP.
Yes, and IBM and Apple and Google... US tax, SEC and patent law as well as Fed/Obama helicopter drops assures that Goliath companies grow by absorbing smaller companies, not by innovation. And the overhead of a Goliath company assures that anything that doesn't add half a billion or more to the balance sheet will be killed. The good news is that this leaves huge holes in the market which can be filled by smaller companies. Sun Ray has been around for more than a decade and if you've seen it in action, you might wonder whether like so many other computer technologies, it was ahead of its time. For a decade it has been ready to save millions of dollars in energy and IT support costs and it would be a perfect fit healthcare, education, government and many corporate uses. Lets hope that bad corporate decisions and bad government policy are not enough to bury a good idea forever.
Too many years in sciences, I read Nina's last known position as decimal. I think the alert was in DD-MM so -33 Degrees, 50 minutes and 169 degrees 41 minutes which is -33.8333 169.68333. It also isn't as far south as in that photobucket image I posted earlier, but is very near the center of this MODIS image for June 4th. If you go to this website you can zoom in and out and change the date and be amazed at how rapidly this low forms a circular storm and moves east leaving a whispy trail of high-wind clouds. The best resolution MODIS imagery is around 250mm so little chance of seeing a boat but NASA/NOAA night imagery might be able to pick up ship lights if they are particularly bright.
Enhanced satellite image with last known position of the Nina on June 4, 2013. (Arrow drawn to approximate position.)
I just noticed the date of the Pan-Pan alert. I wonder if the standard for PanPan broadcasts is Zulu time or local time and if so, what locale? Anyway by midnight June 4th Z, the storm was right over them and then sending them south should have reduced their time in the storm but it would have risked giving them a fierce headwind and driving them back to New Zealand if they were disabled.
Posted on the cruisers forum:
Current from Australia Maritime Safety Information current at 300000 UTC JUN 13 Issued by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) Part 1. Distress, Urgency, CQ and Safety Messages: PAN PAN FM RCC AUSTRALIA 260143Z JUN 2013 AUSSAR 2013/4000 TASMAN SEA RCC AUSTRALIA REQUESTS INFORMATION REGARDING SIGHTINGS OR COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE WHITE AND GREEN 60FT SCHOONER RIGGED VESESL 'NINA'. THE VESSEL HAS 7 POB, AND WAS ON A VOYAGE FROM OPUA NEW ZEALAND TO NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA, LAST KNOWN POSITION 33-50S 169-41E 04 JUNE 2013. REPORTS TO THIS STATION OR RCC AUSTRALIA VIA TELEPHONE +61262306811 INMARSAT THROUGH LES BURUM (POR 212,IOR 312), SPECIAL ACCESS CODE (SAC) 39, HF DSC 005030001, EMAIL: rccaus@amsa.gov.au OR BY FAX +61262306868. NNNN
So this is why they're still looking in NZ. Last known position was north of the center of the storm which means she would have been initially blown east if she'd been dis-masted or her crew was otherwise set adrift on June 3-4th. One thing I don't understand is given this position, why would they have been guided to sail south, towards the center of the storm in order to "get out of this nasty weather"?
Notice that they aren't too far from an intense white spot (thunderhead?) in this photo. Could they have been guided from inside a relatively localized thunderstorm towards the eye of the storm?
Good thread. If someone Evi loved and respected were lost at sea, she might want to help organize a crowdsourced search and rescue effort like the one used in search of Jim Gray, Tyler Wright and Steve Fosset. What we need is data. As someone who has sailed for decades, I won't underestimate the scope of the effort. VHF radio doesn't reach much beyond the horizon and a mast of a ship that size wouldn't be seen or return a RADAR reflection more than about 7 miles under ideal conditions. So if EPIRB, HF and Satellite are down, the ship only has a 6 or 7 mile radius of observability, less if it has been dis-masted. (Somewhat likely given the conditions.) But the Tasman sea is huge so we need to use data to focus the search effort. The coast guard has a protocol which does this, based on tidal and weather patterns. But we can extend this based on the particular kind of boat, how well it sails into the wind, how fast it is, the captain and crew's behavior and the recommendations to go south of a low on June 3rd, 2013. Apparently GPS coordinates weren't part of Evi's last broadcast. But we can take the same reasonable assumption that I've see rescue people speak of, that they were in th center of the storm. Here is a weather satellite photo of the area on June 3rd. The storm seemed strongest at about 38S 165E. If they were in the thick of it by June 3rd, they were already pulled south of the rhumb-line to their destination, they might have drifted or been forced even further south. The storm grew stronger for at least another day as it moved east on June 4th. If they were ahead of (West of) the storm, they were almost certainly pushed north and west because lows circulate clockwise in the southern hemisphere. If they were behind it they may have been pushed south but I think this is less likely since they should have been already pretty far from NZ and the storm was moving east as they were moving west. Here are the weather satellite photos for the rest of June. But what we need are high resolution satellite or aircraft photos. Unfortunately this part of the world at this time of year is covered in clouds much of the time. Even the recon mission photos might not show much. So like the guy who looks for his keys under the streetlight, we might be limited in where we can crowdsource search. If someone were really industrious, they'd send out drones or balloons equipped with high resolution cameras. It's still a needle in a haystack, but its something. And if it helps bring these people home, it's worth it. If you ever want to read a harrowing story about someone lost at sea, only a few dozen miles from shore in the relatively tiny Irish sea, read the story of Fastnet 79, "Left for Dead." Evi, we're not giving up on you or the rest of the crew so keep hopeful and focus on yours and your friend's survival.
Surely Mortgage Investors Corporation pulled in far more than $7.5 Million with this fraud. And they certainly caused more than $7.5 Million in damages to their victims and the rest society by blowing phone spam into the property bubble. What's to stop them or anyone else from doing it again? This should have been a criminal case. Prison for the CEO and board of directors would be more of a deterrent for corporate crimes.