You've given me an idea: Maybe there's a selection pressure against mice (and other complex creatures) who are dumb enough to lose a leg, eye or ear in the first place.
If they lose such a valuable part once, maybe they're more likely to lose it again or sustain an even worse injury and wind up as fish food. In the meantime, they'd be competing for food with their smarter, more deserving cohort members.
It is now thought that ionized, superheated gas accounts for much of the dark matter.
This article describes studies of intergalactic gas 150 times hotter than the sun. Such gas is difficult to detect because it can only radiate at ultraviolet wavelengths:
Any Isaac Asimov fans here flash on "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" (Astounding, Mar 1948)?
In a prank article of Asimov's, thiotimoline (which doesn't exist, BTW) dissolves a fraction of a second before contact with water. This discovery inspires a scientist to create a "thiotimoline battery," a chain of thiotimoline cells, each triggered before the other, and use it to predict the future. But a feedback loop through time creates a natural catastrophe as the device tries to destroy itself, forcing the scientist to disable it.
Perhaps the authors should try chemicals instead of a random number generator.
The submitter is rephrasing the JPL news release, which a implied a similar awe. In part:
"No other moon in the solar system has such a striking geological feature. In places, the ridge is comprised of mountains. In height, they rival Olympus Mons on Mars, approximately three times the height of Mt. Everest, which is surprising for such a small body as Iapetus. Mars is nearly five times the size of Iapetus."
"The asteroid 2004 MN4 will have a very close approach to Earth in 2029. However, the observations collected by the astronomers, both professionals and amateurs, have provided enough information to exclude the possibility of an impact in 2029. This asteroid has an estimated diameter of 400 meters, and the nominal orbit solution results in a close approach to the Earth at 64,000 Km minimum distance on April 13, 2029. The actual distance could even be smaller, as small as 8 times the radius of the Earth. At the time of closest approach, the asteroid should be as bright as a fifth magnitude star, thus from some areas it will be visible to the naked eye.
"The sharp decrease in the estimated risk from this object was the result of the enormous work done by astronomers from all over the world. Notwidstanding the Christmas holidays, many dedicated people went to work in their observatories, in the archives of past observations and at their computers, as it was the case for the staff of NEODyS. More than 200 new observations of 2004 MN4 were obtained in the last 5 days. The discovery observations of June have been painfully remeasured, the impact monitoring computer programs have been run more than 30 times. Finally today some prediscovery observations from March 2004 were found and extracted from the archives of the Spacewatch survey. These allowed to extend significantly the observations time span, thus the confidence region for the orbital elements was sharply reduced and many impacts compatible with the previous data turned out to be incompatible with the extended observations."
Poor spelling in the article immediately suggested "crackpot," but I knew something was really loopy when I got to the part about replacing your gas tank with a plastic water tank.
At least the water can't catch fire in an accident.:-)
Moderators, attention please!
NEC bought 'em out a looong time ago (Google says 1996). As I recall, the quality of NEC's systems went severely downhill after the acquisition when they started putting their name on PB's parts.
Hoagland was given a forum on CompuServe about 15 years ago for his "Monument of Mars" claims. He was finding "pyramids" that were 2x2 pixels, 1-pixel wide "roads" and other nonsense in the Viking images. Each pixel, BTW, at highest resolution represented about 43 meters/141 feet of Martian surface. Those are some pretty wide roads!
Hoagland gutlessly abandoned the CompuServe forum after a few criticisms, despite a biased forum "moderator" and an overwhelming number of supporters who compared him to Columbus and Galileo.
This screwball managed to pressure NASA to obtain a higher-resolution image of the "face" on a later Mars mission. It showed the feature was not very face-like unless was sunlit at a specific low angle.
Hoagland is another of the world's parasites. I'm very sorry to see him getting undeserved publicity again.
I'm opposed to commercial fission power generation on Earth, and want to see any possible Europan ecological system protected, but this submission is kinda goofy.
Wipe out all Europan life with a single probe? With some billions of cubic miles of Europan ocean to dilute any possible leakage?
Maybe, if the Europans, living all together in one small colony, discover the leaking probe and take it home to worship or something.
Another (less desirable, but more likely) solution is to let the number of software patents balloon into the tens or hundreds of millions, then let the whole asinine system collapse under its own absurd weight.
Of course the people and organizations benefitting from the current mess won't let it go that far.
I agree to a point. But I believe that the payoff in tech innovation vs. cash outlay may not be worth it. I suspect we got the most of the benefits of space program spin-offs years ago. Wouldn't we recycle a lot of Apollo technology the second time around?
I agree that the Moon/Mars initiative could hobble the entire space program, but I believe that Bush's 3rd-grade appreciation of science, coupled with big new government contracts are not the only driving forces here.
There's the Chinese space program.
The Chinese intend (or intended at one time) to land astronauts and possibly build a base on the Moon after 2005. While I see no real threat from this other than to our national pride, the thought of the Chinese staking a claim to equal if not superior technological prowess in space may be one of the things entering Bush's integer-only calculations.
Knowing how little the Chinese ruling party values individual human life, I'm sure concerns about slightly radiation-toasted taikonauts with mild cases of lunar dust-induced silicosis and low-gravitiy bone loss and muscle atrophy will not slow their program or eat into their budget like they would ours. The Chinese could be tough competitors.
So, just in case they really go ahead with their program and make good progress, the US would have the Moon/Mars initiative in the pipeline.
I'm all for planning Lunar and Martian manned missions, but we just don't have the technology or the necessity yet. Preserving Hubble is far more important.
A friend of my father's had a very similar encounter.
When a homeless man asked him for money to buy food, he was skeptical because the guy was pretty obviously a chronic alcoholic. "You're not going to buy liquor?" he demanded. "Nossir, I'm hungry." Just to be sure, he walked the man into a fast food place, bought him the food and sat him down at a table. Then he said goodbye and headed for an exit.
When he reached the door, he looked back and was just in time to see the man chuck the tray of untouched food into the trash as he headed out the other exit.
Slashdot Mirror
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EDJI&t=my&l=on&z =l&q=l&c=
Excluding the dip to 8,000 in 2002 and 2003, that is. Is that what you're calling a "bull market"?
You've given me an idea: Maybe there's a selection pressure against mice (and other complex creatures) who are dumb enough to lose a leg, eye or ear in the first place. If they lose such a valuable part once, maybe they're more likely to lose it again or sustain an even worse injury and wind up as fish food. In the meantime, they'd be competing for food with their smarter, more deserving cohort members.
Or any of the other posters who said the effect on milage is the cube of velocity. I learned this from a car designer many years ago.
Thanks for straightening me out. Not enough sleep, pulled up an old link and read it too fast.
Cheers. :-)
This article describes studies of intergalactic gas 150 times hotter than the sun. Such gas is difficult to detect because it can only radiate at ultraviolet wavelengths:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/missing_matt er_030212.html/
In a prank article of Asimov's, thiotimoline (which doesn't exist, BTW) dissolves a fraction of a second before contact with water. This discovery inspires a scientist to create a "thiotimoline battery," a chain of thiotimoline cells, each triggered before the other, and use it to predict the future. But a feedback loop through time creates a natural catastrophe as the device tries to destroy itself, forcing the scientist to disable it.
Perhaps the authors should try chemicals instead of a random number generator.
The submitter is rephrasing the JPL news release, which a implied a similar awe. In part: "No other moon in the solar system has such a striking geological feature. In places, the ridge is comprised of mountains. In height, they rival Olympus Mons on Mars, approximately three times the height of Mt. Everest, which is surprising for such a small body as Iapetus. Mars is nearly five times the size of Iapetus."
"Near-Earth Asteroid 2004 MN4: improved situation
"The asteroid 2004 MN4 will have a very close approach to Earth in 2029. However, the observations collected by the astronomers, both professionals and amateurs, have provided enough information to exclude the possibility of an impact in 2029. This asteroid has an estimated diameter of 400 meters, and the nominal orbit solution results in a close approach to the Earth at 64,000 Km minimum distance on April 13, 2029. The actual distance could even be smaller, as small as 8 times the radius of the Earth. At the time of closest approach, the asteroid should be as bright as a fifth magnitude star, thus from some areas it will be visible to the naked eye.
"The sharp decrease in the estimated risk from this object was the result of the enormous work done by astronomers from all over the world. Notwidstanding the Christmas holidays, many dedicated people went to work in their observatories, in the archives of past observations and at their computers, as it was the case for the staff of NEODyS. More than 200 new observations of 2004 MN4 were obtained in the last 5 days. The discovery observations of June have been painfully remeasured, the impact monitoring computer programs have been run more than 30 times. Finally today some prediscovery observations from March 2004 were found and extracted from the archives of the Spacewatch survey. These allowed to extend significantly the observations time span, thus the confidence region for the orbital elements was sharply reduced and many impacts compatible with the previous data turned out to be incompatible with the extended observations."
Poor spelling in the article immediately suggested "crackpot," but I knew something was really loopy when I got to the part about replacing your gas tank with a plastic water tank. At least the water can't catch fire in an accident. :-)
Moderators, attention please!
NEC bought 'em out a looong time ago (Google says 1996). As I recall, the quality of NEC's systems went severely downhill after the acquisition when they started putting their name on PB's parts.
This must be what Gates was talking about!
One G is about 22 mph/s, so 1400 mph/10s is a about 6.4 G's.
Claiming NASA manipulated the pictures is just plain childish and irresponsible.
Period.
Hoagland gutlessly abandoned the CompuServe forum after a few criticisms, despite a biased forum "moderator" and an overwhelming number of supporters who compared him to Columbus and Galileo.
This screwball managed to pressure NASA to obtain a higher-resolution image of the "face" on a later Mars mission. It showed the feature was not very face-like unless was sunlit at a specific low angle.
Hoagland is another of the world's parasites. I'm very sorry to see him getting undeserved publicity again.
It's almost going to pass close enough to (very remotely) endanger satellites.
Wipe out all Europan life with a single probe? With some billions of cubic miles of Europan ocean to dilute any possible leakage?
Maybe, if the Europans, living all together in one small colony, discover the leaking probe and take it home to worship or something.
Of course the people and organizations benefitting from the current mess won't let it go that far.
I agree to a point. But I believe that the payoff in tech innovation vs. cash outlay may not be worth it. I suspect we got the most of the benefits of space program spin-offs years ago. Wouldn't we recycle a lot of Apollo technology the second time around?
There's the Chinese space program.
The Chinese intend (or intended at one time) to land astronauts and possibly build a base on the Moon after 2005. While I see no real threat from this other than to our national pride, the thought of the Chinese staking a claim to equal if not superior technological prowess in space may be one of the things entering Bush's integer-only calculations.
Knowing how little the Chinese ruling party values individual human life, I'm sure concerns about slightly radiation-toasted taikonauts with mild cases of lunar dust-induced silicosis and low-gravitiy bone loss and muscle atrophy will not slow their program or eat into their budget like they would ours. The Chinese could be tough competitors.
So, just in case they really go ahead with their program and make good progress, the US would have the Moon/Mars initiative in the pipeline.
I'm all for planning Lunar and Martian manned missions, but we just don't have the technology or the necessity yet. Preserving Hubble is far more important.
Sheesh!
(Published on Wednesday (12/03, now an archived article at cbs.marketwatch.com, membership required.)
"Don't fine me! I don't really represent these guys! See, I wasn't even there!"
By, umm, 10 days maybe?
Whatcha gonna do when you misplace your RFID scanner, Sherlock? :-)
A friend of my father's had a very similar encounter. When a homeless man asked him for money to buy food, he was skeptical because the guy was pretty obviously a chronic alcoholic. "You're not going to buy liquor?" he demanded. "Nossir, I'm hungry." Just to be sure, he walked the man into a fast food place, bought him the food and sat him down at a table. Then he said goodbye and headed for an exit.
When he reached the door, he looked back and was just in time to see the man chuck the tray of untouched food into the trash as he headed out the other exit.