I'm a conservative (NOT republican..there is a diff)
I was and still am a BIG hubble fan, and it's a shame they have wasted an opportunity with hubble by sidelining it for the WASTE that is called the ISS.
If we don't figure out where we came from, how are we to know where we are going? Personally, I think the ISS is just an excuse to keep the shuttle flying. I personally hope they "safe" the hubble, and hopefully some private industry can take over the repairs. It's apparent that NASA doesn't want to save it.
It's a shame that we put all of our eggs in one
basket with the shuttle. Yes, it was a grand design in the 70's, but keeping something like this going, without designing something more economical as a replacement is a shame. Hubble, once fixed of it's poor eyesight, has unlocked a lot of the uknown universe to our eyes and imagination. It's just a shame that it will die without being upgraded. Maybe they can put it in "safe mode" before it dies out and perhaps a private company in the future can do the updates necessary to keep it alive until a hubble replacement is up and running.
Personally, I'd like to see a 1,2 punch as far as space travel is done. Use a heavy lift vehicle like a "shuttle" system (SRB's and ET). Yes it is
dangerous (going into space it very dangerous).
Then, use a "spaceship one" type setup to get the people needed to do the work into space. We missed
the boat I think by scrapping the Saturn V rocket.
Big on power and reliable. Yes it was costly since
"nothing came back", but at least it was realitively cheap to operate. Because of the complex nature of the shuttle, the cost per flight
hours is just too expensive. NASA in my opinion is just like any government program. Good intensions, but too many "chiefs" which bog it down with paperwork and the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Get NASA out of the government, and put it into private industry, where they have to worry about the money they spend and you'll see a marked change in the way they work. But, I doubt that will happen. Once a government program starts, it's very difficult to ever end it.
I grew up in the NASA heyday era of the 50's & 60's and was a HUGE fan of NASA, but, today, I wish it would just go away, for the most part.
NASA had a "purpose" in the moon race....beat the USSR. After that was done, they didn't really have a purpose, plus, they lost favor with the
congress, who controls the purse strings. We
cannot afford to blindly spend money on a space
program, that the bulk of the population sees no
outcome that would benefit the population at large. Yes, a lot of technological benefits were
derived from the space program, but, in this "instant" soceity we live in, and in the 5 minute attention span of our world, we don't have, or won't wait for good things to come out of spending so much money.
my laptop, Ultra connector kit, CD's, backup hard drive, USB keys, 8 in 1 memory thingy, all my tools for work, glass cleaner, solvents, towels all kinds of stuff!
I went to my doctor this spring complaining of heel pain...gave me a shot in the heel (real fun). Told me that the extra weight on my right shoulder from carrying that bag around probably did it. I told him it wasn't that heavy. We weighed it.....topped out at 48 pounds! I now PULL my laptop/toolbag on a wheelie carrier:)
Yeah, that's one of my "dream stops" that I want to make some day. I got to one of them this spring when on the way back from the South Dakota, black hills area, we detoured through the Omaha Nebraska
area and spent a few hours at the SAC museum, halfway between Lincoln and Omaha. The size of the Convair/Consolidated B-36 is impressive, but I still want to get to the AF Museum and see that Valkerie.
Here's a pan-o-rama of the main hanger at Omaha
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/p51d007/Hang erPanorama1.jpghttp://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/p51d007/Hang erPanorama1.jpg
Yep, that was it....I knew somewhere there had to
be a website detailing this. I remember reading about this years ago, when I was building a plastic
model of the XB-70 and did a little research into the plane. Growing up in the 60's was a great thing for a kid who like planes...there were TONS of things going on research wise, and all sorts of fantastic stories came out of the old Muroc dry lakebed......if only the catus could talk:)
Joe Walker was a great test pilot, but on a "publicity" stunt involving several general electric
equipped aircraft his plane (they think) was sucked into the tail of the XB-70 Valkerie, and was destroyed. The Valkerie lumbered on for a little bit, rolled over and dived into the desert, killing one of the two pilots, who was unable to eject.
Someone on Google Earth's BBS said that there are still pieces of the Valkerie in the desert.
Oh noooooo, it's the evil Google trying to take over the world instead of microsoft......call congress, call a lawyer, get some lawsuits started quick!!
(if you don't figure that the above was meant as a joke, then...nevermind)
Boy I just love it every August when the debate comes up about the evil USA dropping the A-Bomb on "the peace loving people of Japan". What a bunch of hog wash. 40+ years of NO history taught in schools, liberalism run amok in primary and secondary education has us to the point were the bulk of the young people actually believe the dribble PREACHED in schools. It's a shame that the citizens of the United States have this "shame" over them for dropping the A-Bomb on the japs. My Grandfather lost two buddies in Okinawa, and lost the hearing in one ear do to those "peace loving people". Ask the people of Nanking China, the survivors in the Phillipines and countless others about the "peace loving people" BS.
The emperor should have been right up there with Tojo at the end of a rope, but, Gen Mac figured that if he was hung, the people of Japan would have revolted, so for that reason, his live was spared.
I'll say it again...had we invaded, and suffered countless lives lost, along with the complete destruction of the population of japan (which is what would have happened), and then after the war it was revealed we had the means to shorten the war but didn't, Truman would have been hung instead of Tojo!
Funny, every August to read the ton of threads about the "horrible" USA dropping the bomb on "the peace loving japs" BS....
Go back and read history again. Had the war NOT ended, in November of 1945, the allied armies would have invaded the southern most island of Japan. In March of 1946, the allied armies were to invade the main island of Japan, east and north of Tokyo (Operation Olympic, Operation Coronet). It was well known, and reported that had the allied armies invaded mainland Japan, the CIVILIAN population of Japan was prepared to attack the armies invading, with sticks, knives, shovels, which would have forced the armies to shoot and kill every last one of them. Think of all the civilian destruction that would have been required to finally end the war with a conventional invasion. By dropping the A-Bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, countless thousands of lives were spared on both sides. Was the A-Bomb a horrible instrument of death and destruction? Well, any war is a horrible thing to have to go through.
By dropping the bomb, perhaps the death of a few, allowed many to survive.
Had the president of the U.S.A. not dropped the A-Bomb, and had invaded Japan, after the war, had it been known we had the means to end the war sooner, with fewer lives on both side lost, the public would have called for the impeachment, if not lynching of the president.
Remember the visa card "fraud" commercial where the
lady is under the hair dryer and speaking in a male geeks voice? "I can now build my robot....a FEMALE robot...this is going to be the best prom ever"...
Eat oat bran, don't eat oat bran, drink red wine, don't drink red wine, use a cell phone, don't use a cell phone. No wonder people are confused......
I seriously doubt, unless you yack on the phone for 3-4 hours a wack you're going to get a lot of radiation from a digital phone, they only have.3watts of power. Even in the microwave region, that isn't enough.
If you are that worried, don't use a cell, or use a wireless headset.
With all this yacking about cell phones, what about wireless land line phones that work in the microwave band? Nobody is cryin' about them?
Personally, I use a BT headset...not from the "dangers of radiation" but because with my job, I have to keep both of my hands free....you ever try to hold a modern flip phone on your shoulder and do any serious work? Now THAT would be a good study item. "The serious injury possibilities of holding your mini phone up to your ear why twisting your neck". LOL
The test site anniversary is fine, but I'm holding my party on Aug 6th & 9th to celebrate. The test is
fine, but the actual dropping of the bomb, which helped end WW2 would be a better way to celebrate!!
Hey, what's that bright light.......
If they want to screw up the web, put the UN in charge of it. Within a matter of years, the web will be so screwed up, it won't work anymore. And their fix will be like anything else. Have the countries that have money, pour more money into it.
If I were the USA, I'd tell the UN to go take a flyin' leap off a short pier. The United States Government STARTED the net with DARPA, so it should stay in the USA.
All these other countries, if they think they can do a better job, go out and invent one yourself!
This would be a nice way to make a keyboard. With a
click of a mouse, you could set your keyboard up any way you want. Would be really nice for games. You could overlay your controls onto the keyboard. I'm sure this needs a TON of development though...
The only reason this piece of junk is still flying is because a bunch of idiots at NASA want to keep their jobs! They should have dumped this white elephant after the challenger "accident" and gone back to a proven, reliable, system like Apollo. God forbid something happens, but with a POS like the shuttle "system" it will happen again. And about this "resuce" mission if needed, what the hell does that mean? Try sending up another POS? What if the 2nd one screws up when it is launched?
NASA's manned flight ops need to be junked and something else started. They are so over-bloated with crap, they can't find their way out of the bathroom!
I think we need a new welfare program to provide
tv's to those who can't afford it, and tax the ones that can so the ones that can't can. Afterall, it would be fair! LOL...
(it was meant as a joke if you don't get humor)
It's about time to retire this aging shuttle and go back to the way they use to fly into space. Bring back the Saturn 5 launch vehicle! It just worked!
Use the Saturn or similar to launch the heavy stuff into orbit, and then use something like the Burt Rutan plan or something similar to get the people up and back. The shuttle in it's current design is just to old to fly. They never had as much problems with the foam UNTIL the EPA made them switch to a more "enviromental friendly" foam.
If you "really" want to go wayyyyyyyyyy back to
before the shuttle, the X-15 flew into and out of
space, then the X20, X24 series of lifting bodies
were done. They had planned on using ELV's to haul the stuff up, and use the X20 or X24 to haul the people up and back, but, they thought the shuttle would be cheaper.
On a side note, the "original" design of the shuttle was a piggyback design. They would equip a Scram jet style carrying plane, similar to the way they piggyback the shuttle on a 747, then once at a high enough altitude and speed, the shuttle would be "launched" and have enough fuel on board to make it to orbit. This would have completely eliminated the risky SRB/ET setup they use now.
Personally, I'd like to see them go back to the old Saturn V setup.....something that worked perfectly, every flight (the boosters worked, the apollo CM/SM didn't).
I'd have to give it 10 out of 10.
I've had SBC/Yahoo DSL for about 3 1/2 years.
I might of had an hour of downtime the
entire time! Re-uping at the end of the
contract period is simple. I've had good
speeds up and down, low ping's (although I
don't play online games).
I'm about tired of all this "hand wringing" BS about
oh my, we dropped the bomb on the poor innocent peace loving people of japan. Screw em!
A. They started the d**n war!
B. They murdered, raped hundered of thousands of
people in China, Korea, Phillipines.
C. Ask any soldier who was lucky enough to survive
Iwo Jima, Okinawa et al what they think of the
peace loving people of Japan.
The purpose of a war is to KILL PEOPLE and BREAK THINGS. War is an ugly brutial business. If I
was a president and had a weapon that could possibly end the suffering of a war sooner, I'd use it in a heart beat! My grandfather and uncle
were with the 5th marine division on Iwo, Tariwa,
Okinawa. Both came back completely changed. My
grandfather lost the hearing in one ear when a
Jap mortar fell close to the foxhole he and his buddies were in. He survived, one of his buddies
died, the other lost a leg. My mom said that after he got back, he would wake up in the night
sweating, and screaming. He was the lucky one....
he came back! Thousands did not.
Had we invaded the Japanese islands (operations olympia and corrinet) we would have lost thousands upon thousands of American lives, not to mention the amount of japanese killed.
In this politically correct world we live in, we are causing undo suffering because we have to be "sensitive" to the (insert your best line) of the enemy. Screw them! As Gen. Patton said "dying for your country isn't honorable....make the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!" (paraphrasing)
Sadly, I think it will take another terrorist attack to finally wake this country up, and put this PC crap out to pasture where it belongs!
Perhaps if a plane full of gas landed in the middle of hollywood, or on rodeo' drive, then maybe they will wake up!
I've had one of the V500's since they were released.
It works great, doesn't mess up my wi-fi setup, and the side scroll is great on the road in photoshop
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a conservative (NOT republican..there is a diff) I was and still am a BIG hubble fan, and it's a shame they have wasted an opportunity with hubble by sidelining it for the WASTE that is called the ISS. If we don't figure out where we came from, how are we to know where we are going? Personally, I think the ISS is just an excuse to keep the shuttle flying. I personally hope they "safe" the hubble, and hopefully some private industry can take over the repairs. It's apparent that NASA doesn't want to save it.
It's a shame that we put all of our eggs in one basket with the shuttle. Yes, it was a grand design in the 70's, but keeping something like this going, without designing something more economical as a replacement is a shame. Hubble, once fixed of it's poor eyesight, has unlocked a lot of the uknown universe to our eyes and imagination. It's just a shame that it will die without being upgraded. Maybe they can put it in "safe mode" before it dies out and perhaps a private company in the future can do the updates necessary to keep it alive until a hubble replacement is up and running. Personally, I'd like to see a 1,2 punch as far as space travel is done. Use a heavy lift vehicle like a "shuttle" system (SRB's and ET). Yes it is dangerous (going into space it very dangerous). Then, use a "spaceship one" type setup to get the people needed to do the work into space. We missed the boat I think by scrapping the Saturn V rocket. Big on power and reliable. Yes it was costly since "nothing came back", but at least it was realitively cheap to operate. Because of the complex nature of the shuttle, the cost per flight hours is just too expensive. NASA in my opinion is just like any government program. Good intensions, but too many "chiefs" which bog it down with paperwork and the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Get NASA out of the government, and put it into private industry, where they have to worry about the money they spend and you'll see a marked change in the way they work. But, I doubt that will happen. Once a government program starts, it's very difficult to ever end it. I grew up in the NASA heyday era of the 50's & 60's and was a HUGE fan of NASA, but, today, I wish it would just go away, for the most part. NASA had a "purpose" in the moon race....beat the USSR. After that was done, they didn't really have a purpose, plus, they lost favor with the congress, who controls the purse strings. We cannot afford to blindly spend money on a space program, that the bulk of the population sees no outcome that would benefit the population at large. Yes, a lot of technological benefits were derived from the space program, but, in this "instant" soceity we live in, and in the 5 minute attention span of our world, we don't have, or won't wait for good things to come out of spending so much money.
my laptop, Ultra connector kit, CD's, backup hard drive, USB keys, 8 in 1 memory thingy, all my tools for work, glass cleaner, solvents, towels all kinds of stuff! I went to my doctor this spring complaining of heel pain...gave me a shot in the heel (real fun). Told me that the extra weight on my right shoulder from carrying that bag around probably did it. I told him it wasn't that heavy. We weighed it.....topped out at 48 pounds! I now PULL my laptop/toolbag on a wheelie carrier :)
I'm glad someone mentioned that! Doesn't matter that they have 30+ checkouts, they only run 5 or 6 it seems
Yeah, that's one of my "dream stops" that I want to make some day. I got to one of them this spring when on the way back from the South Dakota, black hills area, we detoured through the Omaha Nebraska area and spent a few hours at the SAC museum, halfway between Lincoln and Omaha. The size of the Convair/Consolidated B-36 is impressive, but I still want to get to the AF Museum and see that Valkerie. Here's a pan-o-rama of the main hanger at Omaha http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/p51d007/Hang erPanorama1.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/p51d007/Hang erPanorama1.jpg
Yep, that was it....I knew somewhere there had to be a website detailing this. I remember reading about this years ago, when I was building a plastic model of the XB-70 and did a little research into the plane. Growing up in the 60's was a great thing for a kid who like planes...there were TONS of things going on research wise, and all sorts of fantastic stories came out of the old Muroc dry lakebed......if only the catus could talk :)
Joe Walker was a great test pilot, but on a "publicity" stunt involving several general electric equipped aircraft his plane (they think) was sucked into the tail of the XB-70 Valkerie, and was destroyed. The Valkerie lumbered on for a little bit, rolled over and dived into the desert, killing one of the two pilots, who was unable to eject. Someone on Google Earth's BBS said that there are still pieces of the Valkerie in the desert.
Oh noooooo, it's the evil Google trying to take over the world instead of microsoft......call congress, call a lawyer, get some lawsuits started quick!! (if you don't figure that the above was meant as a joke, then...nevermind)
Solitare? LOL
Boy I just love it every August when the debate comes up about the evil USA dropping the A-Bomb on "the peace loving people of Japan". What a bunch of hog wash. 40+ years of NO history taught in schools, liberalism run amok in primary and secondary education has us to the point were the bulk of the young people actually believe the dribble PREACHED in schools. It's a shame that the citizens of the United States have this "shame" over them for dropping the A-Bomb on the japs. My Grandfather lost two buddies in Okinawa, and lost the hearing in one ear do to those "peace loving people". Ask the people of Nanking China, the survivors in the Phillipines and countless others about the "peace loving people" BS. The emperor should have been right up there with Tojo at the end of a rope, but, Gen Mac figured that if he was hung, the people of Japan would have revolted, so for that reason, his live was spared. I'll say it again...had we invaded, and suffered countless lives lost, along with the complete destruction of the population of japan (which is what would have happened), and then after the war it was revealed we had the means to shorten the war but didn't, Truman would have been hung instead of Tojo! Funny, every August to read the ton of threads about the "horrible" USA dropping the bomb on "the peace loving japs" BS....
Go back and read history again. Had the war NOT ended, in November of 1945, the allied armies would have invaded the southern most island of Japan. In March of 1946, the allied armies were to invade the main island of Japan, east and north of Tokyo (Operation Olympic, Operation Coronet). It was well known, and reported that had the allied armies invaded mainland Japan, the CIVILIAN population of Japan was prepared to attack the armies invading, with sticks, knives, shovels, which would have forced the armies to shoot and kill every last one of them. Think of all the civilian destruction that would have been required to finally end the war with a conventional invasion. By dropping the A-Bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, countless thousands of lives were spared on both sides. Was the A-Bomb a horrible instrument of death and destruction? Well, any war is a horrible thing to have to go through. By dropping the bomb, perhaps the death of a few, allowed many to survive. Had the president of the U.S.A. not dropped the A-Bomb, and had invaded Japan, after the war, had it been known we had the means to end the war sooner, with fewer lives on both side lost, the public would have called for the impeachment, if not lynching of the president.
Remember the visa card "fraud" commercial where the lady is under the hair dryer and speaking in a male geeks voice? "I can now build my robot....a FEMALE robot...this is going to be the best prom ever"...
Eat oat bran, don't eat oat bran, drink red wine, don't drink red wine, use a cell phone, don't use a cell phone. No wonder people are confused...... I seriously doubt, unless you yack on the phone for 3-4 hours a wack you're going to get a lot of radiation from a digital phone, they only have .3watts of power. Even in the microwave region, that isn't enough.
If you are that worried, don't use a cell, or use a wireless headset.
With all this yacking about cell phones, what about wireless land line phones that work in the microwave band? Nobody is cryin' about them?
Personally, I use a BT headset...not from the "dangers of radiation" but because with my job, I have to keep both of my hands free....you ever try to hold a modern flip phone on your shoulder and do any serious work? Now THAT would be a good study item. "The serious injury possibilities of holding your mini phone up to your ear why twisting your neck". LOL
The test site anniversary is fine, but I'm holding my party on Aug 6th & 9th to celebrate. The test is fine, but the actual dropping of the bomb, which helped end WW2 would be a better way to celebrate!! Hey, what's that bright light.......
If they want to screw up the web, put the UN in charge of it. Within a matter of years, the web will be so screwed up, it won't work anymore. And their fix will be like anything else. Have the countries that have money, pour more money into it. If I were the USA, I'd tell the UN to go take a flyin' leap off a short pier. The United States Government STARTED the net with DARPA, so it should stay in the USA. All these other countries, if they think they can do a better job, go out and invent one yourself!
This would be a nice way to make a keyboard. With a click of a mouse, you could set your keyboard up any way you want. Would be really nice for games. You could overlay your controls onto the keyboard. I'm sure this needs a TON of development though...
The only reason this piece of junk is still flying is because a bunch of idiots at NASA want to keep their jobs! They should have dumped this white elephant after the challenger "accident" and gone back to a proven, reliable, system like Apollo. God forbid something happens, but with a POS like the shuttle "system" it will happen again. And about this "resuce" mission if needed, what the hell does that mean? Try sending up another POS? What if the 2nd one screws up when it is launched? NASA's manned flight ops need to be junked and something else started. They are so over-bloated with crap, they can't find their way out of the bathroom!
I think we need a new welfare program to provide tv's to those who can't afford it, and tax the ones that can so the ones that can't can. Afterall, it would be fair! LOL... (it was meant as a joke if you don't get humor)
It's about time to retire this aging shuttle and go back to the way they use to fly into space. Bring back the Saturn 5 launch vehicle! It just worked! Use the Saturn or similar to launch the heavy stuff into orbit, and then use something like the Burt Rutan plan or something similar to get the people up and back. The shuttle in it's current design is just to old to fly. They never had as much problems with the foam UNTIL the EPA made them switch to a more "enviromental friendly" foam.
If you "really" want to go wayyyyyyyyyy back to before the shuttle, the X-15 flew into and out of space, then the X20, X24 series of lifting bodies were done. They had planned on using ELV's to haul the stuff up, and use the X20 or X24 to haul the people up and back, but, they thought the shuttle would be cheaper. On a side note, the "original" design of the shuttle was a piggyback design. They would equip a Scram jet style carrying plane, similar to the way they piggyback the shuttle on a 747, then once at a high enough altitude and speed, the shuttle would be "launched" and have enough fuel on board to make it to orbit. This would have completely eliminated the risky SRB/ET setup they use now. Personally, I'd like to see them go back to the old Saturn V setup.....something that worked perfectly, every flight (the boosters worked, the apollo CM/SM didn't).
I'd have to give it 10 out of 10. I've had SBC/Yahoo DSL for about 3 1/2 years. I might of had an hour of downtime the entire time! Re-uping at the end of the contract period is simple. I've had good speeds up and down, low ping's (although I don't play online games).
For a stupid video card, where it will be 2/3 less in about 9 months, then a fool and his money are soon parted!
I'm about tired of all this "hand wringing" BS about oh my, we dropped the bomb on the poor innocent peace loving people of japan. Screw em! A. They started the d**n war! B. They murdered, raped hundered of thousands of people in China, Korea, Phillipines. C. Ask any soldier who was lucky enough to survive Iwo Jima, Okinawa et al what they think of the peace loving people of Japan. The purpose of a war is to KILL PEOPLE and BREAK THINGS. War is an ugly brutial business. If I was a president and had a weapon that could possibly end the suffering of a war sooner, I'd use it in a heart beat! My grandfather and uncle were with the 5th marine division on Iwo, Tariwa, Okinawa. Both came back completely changed. My grandfather lost the hearing in one ear when a Jap mortar fell close to the foxhole he and his buddies were in. He survived, one of his buddies died, the other lost a leg. My mom said that after he got back, he would wake up in the night sweating, and screaming. He was the lucky one.... he came back! Thousands did not. Had we invaded the Japanese islands (operations olympia and corrinet) we would have lost thousands upon thousands of American lives, not to mention the amount of japanese killed. In this politically correct world we live in, we are causing undo suffering because we have to be "sensitive" to the (insert your best line) of the enemy. Screw them! As Gen. Patton said "dying for your country isn't honorable....make the other poor dumb bastard die for his country!" (paraphrasing) Sadly, I think it will take another terrorist attack to finally wake this country up, and put this PC crap out to pasture where it belongs! Perhaps if a plane full of gas landed in the middle of hollywood, or on rodeo' drive, then maybe they will wake up!
I've had one of the V500's since they were released. It works great, doesn't mess up my wi-fi setup, and the side scroll is great on the road in photoshop
Home come "being slashdotted" or something similar isn't there....here's the "dictionary" suggestions. Suggestions for slashdotted: 1. slaughtered 2. cell-mediated 3. slow-witted 4. Chalcedon 5. selected 6. Colchester 7. shell-shocked 8. solicited 9. sanctioned 10. selector