Another reason they are doing a kinetic impact is because they want to judge the structure of the comet. Right now, scientists don't really know if the comet's consistency is that of a fluffy snowball or a hard chunk of ice. If you used explosives, you would have melting of the ice, whatever its consistency, and would get less information about the construction of the comet. Once possibility is that the comet might be loosely packed enough that the impactor goes in one side and flies out the other....
Also, I'm surprised the article submitter didn't include a link to the mission website.....
I am a voter in Van Hollen's congressional district. He won office two years ago from an incumbent very liberal Republican on the platform that wasn't much more than "I am a democrat, she isn't." Our district is so overwhelmingly democratic as to make this other guy's campaign a joke. In spite of squatting Van Hollen sites, whatshisface is still going to lose...
Haven't we been using VLBI techniques for almost a decade? Or more?
The only thing I see in this story that is new is the fact that the VLBI data was sent over the internet, instead of the usual method of "Never underestimate the bandwitdth of a Fed-Ex truck full of terabyte data tapes." Otherwise, this is just announcing a new VLBI center.
Engineers still have to do math in the English system because parts are made to English unit standards in the US. Forcing a changeover would not only make lives easier for engineers, but make it easier to teach phyiscal concepts such as the difference between weight and mass (did you know that in English units, there are units of pounds for both weight and mass? Metric is much more straightforward).
I'm not sure that outweighs trying to fight the ingrained culture of English units, but I thought I'd just throw in my two cents.
If the researcher or ham already owns the spectrum, then he can refuse to sell. If he doesn't own it, then he can buy his own spectrum.
All I have to say is: YEARGGGHHHH! Some researchers, namely radio astronomers, don't have any choice about the spectrum they use. There are certain bands that, if opened to commercial interests, would utterly destroy astronomical research. For instance, neutral hydrogen emits at the 1.4 GHz band. We wouldn't have found out that we live in a spiral galaxy if that band had been anything other than unused. You can't have the FCC or industry or anyone change the laws of physics. There are portions of the spectrum that could be deregulated, but other parts of it MUST BE KEPT FREE for basic astronomical research.
If you look at the article, you would see that administrative privileges are only one of the possible solutions for the problem. I've played Freelancer and Train Simulator as the totally powerless "guest" account on my XP computer without incident. I suspect that other items on the list may run as non-administrators as well, so suggesting that all those games will not run as administrator is misleading.
Actually, even though stuff sometimes breaks in testing and unstable, every time a debian package has done so for me, there has been a coherent bug report of the exact problem in the debian bugtracking system along with an equally coherent solution.
Then again, using debian testing did hopelessly break a commercial program I had installed.... (matlab)
One's listed as childrens songs, which dosn't fill me with a huge amount of confidence. Children tend to not be the most demanding audience.
It's just like the rest of their music: quirky, random and guaranteed to get stuck in your head. The song "In the middle, in the middle, in the middle" is about looking both ways before crossing the street, but it still refuses to leave my head! The subjects may be childish, but the music is still as upbeat and catchy as always.
Actually, where I was observing, for the first few minutes after sunrise, the sun was behind some very thick haze/thin clouds and you could see the transit happening with the naked eye and no filter!* We even had it in an 8" telescope without a solar filter for a few minutes!* It was amazing!!
*Kids, don't try this at home! And adults too for that matter... unless sanctioned by professional observational astronomers
I saw an ad the other day for it. I suspect this and other such deals will greatly increase the number of clueless people using wireless routers in my area.
My brother and I are looking forward to future war driving expeditions in my area.:)
On the other hand, maybe the technicians will set them up securely?
Fortran is only slightly more complicated than BASIC, and is actually used in the real world (in spite of it being pronounced dead on a regular basis).
Actually, there's something funny about the LSASS crashing.
It crashed LSASS on a computer I was maintaining, but when I went to look for the virus executable in running processes and windows directory, there was no sign of it. Furthermore, activating Microsoft's firewall stopped the LSASS crashes and let me patch the system.
Maybe the crashing was accidental (i.e. a poorly written virus) and the rebooting computers don't actually get infected?
Solar activity is normal. No reports of supernovae on any astronomy related sites (and believe me, there would be because they're sooooooo cool). Pulsars, quasars and most other radiative phenomena are around all the time and therefore could not cause new interference.
The only unusual astronomical activity lately has been the sudden appearance (and disappearance) of a new nebula in Orion.
Disclaimer: I am an aersopace engineering student.
The model they are building is significantly different from the craft from the anime series. The aerodynamic center of the aircraft seems to be more or less in the same location as the center of gravity, making the plane slightly statically unstable. Static instability is not a barrier to success, though, as the first Wright Flyer, the X-29, the F-18 and a number of other aircraft have been statically unstable. In order to fly it, there will need to be constant pilot input and it will have to have some way of generating a controlled pitching moment. The original craft pictured would simply flip over, stall and crash, because the only way to change it's pitching moment would be by shifting the pilots weight around all the time, which would be very difficult in an unstable aircraft. However, the model has swept wings. By putting elevators or elevons on the tips of the wing, making an elevator deflection changes the aerodynamic center of the wing, rather than simply the lift coefficient. Thus, you have a pitch control system, by changing the moment generated about the C.G. Also, since the aerodynamic center is near the c.g., by sitting carefully, the aircraft can become statically neutral in pitch and fly with much less pilot input.
Yaw stability.... well it is a flying wing... but they have really big wing tip stabilizers on the model. It is possible to fly an aircraft without a rudder, but it's harder. If they try flying simulated aircraft without a rudder, it will approximate what they will experience in flight and adequately prepare them for the challenge.
Does anyone have a picture of the optical diagram?
on
Folded Newtonian Telescope
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
In other words, one of those pictures that show where the light rays go? Those generally tend to do a better job of explaining the setup than a picture of the scope and a long description.
New enforcement of NFL IP
on
Superbowling
·
· Score: 1
The other AC hit the nail on the head for the non-linearity. However, another contributing factor is that a leap second is accumulated difference. The actual day is only.0013 seconds off from 24hours if you assume a leap second every 2 years (which is what generally happened prior to this streak) and has been that way more or less since the start of atomic time.
As someone pointed out earlier, the article is incorrect, and a leap second is based on the slowing of earth's rotation.
The dominant force behind the slowing is "tidal braking" from the moon. Basically, just as the moon exerts forces on the ocean, the ocean exerts forces on the moon. As a result, the moon is getting thrown gradually into higher and higher orbits because of force from the earth. The energy has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is earth's rotational inertia.
Leap seconds were implemented as a result of branch of astronomy known as earth orientation. Basically, Earth Orientation is astronomy backwards. By looking at distant quasars constantly and monitoring atomic clocks, astronomers can see minute changes in earth's rotation. Quasars are observed because they are bright (in the radio part of the spectrum) and are far enough away that any physical motion over time would be negligible in the night sky. Correcting for leap seconds and other rotational issues like precession and nutation allows for the accurate functioning of GPS.
So far, this backpack has served me wonderfully. It's nice and comfy, and extremely sturdy. I've used it to haul around textbooks and my laptop without any problem. It's also durable: after 1.5 years of use, not a hint of wear and tear, despite all-weather and bicycle use. It's relatively inexpensive, only 44 bucks, last I checked.
Sorry, but weren't WMDs what this invasion was supposedly about? Or has that all been forgotten?
Now that Saddam is captured, the US will be able to ask (interrogate) him as to where they are. If they exist, he will be the one who knows where they are. If they are then not found in short order, we will know beyond any reasonable doubt that the administration has misled us.
Slashdot Mirror
Another reason they are doing a kinetic impact is because they want to judge the structure of the comet. Right now, scientists don't really know if the comet's consistency is that of a fluffy snowball or a hard chunk of ice. If you used explosives, you would have melting of the ice, whatever its consistency, and would get less information about the construction of the comet. Once possibility is that the comet might be loosely packed enough that the impactor goes in one side and flies out the other....
Also, I'm surprised the article submitter didn't include a link to the mission website.....
I dunno, I thought the part about how linux gave a pink screen of death once the system was hosed was pretty funny....
I am a voter in Van Hollen's congressional district. He won office two years ago from an incumbent very liberal Republican on the platform that wasn't much more than "I am a democrat, she isn't." Our district is so overwhelmingly democratic as to make this other guy's campaign a joke. In spite of squatting Van Hollen sites, whatshisface is still going to lose...
Haven't we been using VLBI techniques for almost a decade? Or more?
The only thing I see in this story that is new is the fact that the VLBI data was sent over the internet, instead of the usual method of "Never underestimate the bandwitdth of a Fed-Ex truck full of terabyte data tapes." Otherwise, this is just announcing a new VLBI center.
Ritz Camera is selling it for $8000, and gives its list price as $9000.
Yes there is.
Engineers still have to do math in the English system because parts are made to English unit standards in the US. Forcing a changeover would not only make lives easier for engineers, but make it easier to teach phyiscal concepts such as the difference between weight and mass (did you know that in English units, there are units of pounds for both weight and mass? Metric is much more straightforward).
I'm not sure that outweighs trying to fight the ingrained culture of English units, but I thought I'd just throw in my two cents.
Actually, if you look, the CNN article has an internet poll attached, and if you look at the results of that poll, Spock is winning by a large margin.
All I have to say is: YEARGGGHHHH! Some researchers, namely radio astronomers, don't have any choice about the spectrum they use. There are certain bands that, if opened to commercial interests, would utterly destroy astronomical research. For instance, neutral hydrogen emits at the 1.4 GHz band. We wouldn't have found out that we live in a spiral galaxy if that band had been anything other than unused. You can't have the FCC or industry or anyone change the laws of physics. There are portions of the spectrum that could be deregulated, but other parts of it MUST BE KEPT FREE for basic astronomical research.
If you look at the article, you would see that administrative privileges are only one of the possible solutions for the problem. I've played Freelancer and Train Simulator as the totally powerless "guest" account on my XP computer without incident. I suspect that other items on the list may run as non-administrators as well, so suggesting that all those games will not run as administrator is misleading.
Actually, even though stuff sometimes breaks in testing and unstable, every time a debian package has done so for me, there has been a coherent bug report of the exact problem in the debian bugtracking system along with an equally coherent solution.
Then again, using debian testing did hopelessly break a commercial program I had installed.... (matlab)
The album "No!" used to be on iTMS, but no longer is. However, it is on their new site. Perhaps They are looking to ditch iTunes entirely?
One's listed as childrens songs, which dosn't fill me with a huge amount of confidence. Children tend to not be the most demanding audience.
It's just like the rest of their music: quirky, random and guaranteed to get stuck in your head. The song "In the middle, in the middle, in the middle" is about looking both ways before crossing the street, but it still refuses to leave my head! The subjects may be childish, but the music is still as upbeat and catchy as always.
Actually, where I was observing, for the first few minutes after sunrise, the sun was behind some very thick haze/thin clouds and you could see the transit happening with the naked eye and no filter!* We even had it in an 8" telescope without a solar filter for a few minutes!* It was amazing!!
*Kids, don't try this at home! And adults too for that matter... unless sanctioned by professional observational astronomers
I saw an ad the other day for it. I suspect this and other such deals will greatly increase the number of clueless people using wireless routers in my area.
:)
My brother and I are looking forward to future war driving expeditions in my area.
On the other hand, maybe the technicians will set them up securely?
Fortran is only slightly more complicated than BASIC, and is actually used in the real world (in spite of it being pronounced dead on a regular basis).
Actually, there's something funny about the LSASS crashing.
It crashed LSASS on a computer I was maintaining, but when I went to look for the virus executable in running processes and windows directory, there was no sign of it. Furthermore, activating Microsoft's firewall stopped the LSASS crashes and let me patch the system.
Maybe the crashing was accidental (i.e. a poorly written virus) and the rebooting computers don't actually get infected?
Solar activity is normal. No reports of supernovae on any astronomy related sites (and believe me, there would be because they're sooooooo cool). Pulsars, quasars and most other radiative phenomena are around all the time and therefore could not cause new interference.
The only unusual astronomical activity lately has been the sudden appearance (and disappearance) of a new nebula in Orion.
I'd pretty much rule out astronomical sources.
Disclaimer: I am an aersopace engineering student.
The model they are building is significantly different from the craft from the anime series. The aerodynamic center of the aircraft seems to be more or less in the same location as the center of gravity, making the plane slightly statically unstable. Static instability is not a barrier to success, though, as the first Wright Flyer, the X-29, the F-18 and a number of other aircraft have been statically unstable. In order to fly it, there will need to be constant pilot input and it will have to have some way of generating a controlled pitching moment. The original craft pictured would simply flip over, stall and crash, because the only way to change it's pitching moment would be by shifting the pilots weight around all the time, which would be very difficult in an unstable aircraft. However, the model has swept wings. By putting elevators or elevons on the tips of the wing, making an elevator deflection changes the aerodynamic center of the wing, rather than simply the lift coefficient. Thus, you have a pitch control system, by changing the moment generated about the C.G. Also, since the aerodynamic center is near the c.g., by sitting carefully, the aircraft can become statically neutral in pitch and fly with much less pilot input.
Yaw stability.... well it is a flying wing... but they have really big wing tip stabilizers on the model. It is possible to fly an aircraft without a rudder, but it's harder. If they try flying simulated aircraft without a rudder, it will approximate what they will experience in flight and adequately prepare them for the challenge.
In other words, one of those pictures that show where the light rays go? Those generally tend to do a better job of explaining the setup than a picture of the scope and a long description.
Sports illustrated/CNN is carrying a story about how the NFL has refused to allow Las Vegas casinos to have superbowl parties, because it violates their IP.
the Memorial to the Columbia crew that they put on board.
They just announced it today, hence why it is blacked it out in the first images.
The other AC hit the nail on the head for the non-linearity. However, another contributing factor is that a leap second is accumulated difference. The actual day is only .0013 seconds off from 24hours if you assume a leap second every 2 years (which is what generally happened prior to this streak) and has been that way more or less since the start of atomic time.
As someone pointed out earlier, the article is incorrect, and a leap second is based on the slowing of earth's rotation.
The dominant force behind the slowing is "tidal braking" from the moon. Basically, just as the moon exerts forces on the ocean, the ocean exerts forces on the moon. As a result, the moon is getting thrown gradually into higher and higher orbits because of force from the earth. The energy has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is earth's rotational inertia.
Leap seconds were implemented as a result of branch of astronomy known as earth orientation. Basically, Earth Orientation is astronomy backwards. By looking at distant quasars constantly and monitoring atomic clocks, astronomers can see minute changes in earth's rotation. Quasars are observed because they are bright (in the radio part of the spectrum) and are far enough away that any physical motion over time would be negligible in the night sky. Correcting for leap seconds and other rotational issues like precession and nutation allows for the accurate functioning of GPS.
For more information, check out USNO's Earth orientation web site
So far, this backpack has served me wonderfully. It's nice and comfy, and extremely sturdy. I've used it to haul around textbooks and my laptop without any problem. It's also durable: after 1.5 years of use, not a hint of wear and tear, despite all-weather and bicycle use. It's relatively inexpensive, only 44 bucks, last I checked.
Sorry, but weren't WMDs what this invasion was supposedly about? Or has that all been forgotten?
Now that Saddam is captured, the US will be able to ask (interrogate) him as to where they are. If they exist, he will be the one who knows where they are. If they are then not found in short order, we will know beyond any reasonable doubt that the administration has misled us.