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User: sznupi

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  1. Re:shuttlecraft on Countries Considering Circumlunar Flight From ISS · · Score: 1

    To save fuel on the return leg, one would need to do quite a bit of aerobraking either way; much harder if the aim is not to reenter, but end up in an orbit which can take you back to ISS. With the stress of braking, it'll be probably much better for some time to take it all the way down at that point.

  2. Re:Wow! on Countries Considering Circumlunar Flight From ISS · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We routinely do refueling on orbit "for decades now" - ISS, earlier Mir and Salyut stations, all refueled by visiting Progress spacecraft (which have provisions for fuel transfer in their docking collar)

    (but Shuttle would be really a bad choice for such mission - around 70 tons of dead weight, thermal shielding probably ill-suited for a possibility of direct reentry on return)

  3. Have $100 million? on Countries Considering Circumlunar Flight From ISS · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here, get yourself a ride (those are people cooperating on almost all private spaceflights so far); also in Soyuz, it would seem - only apt, considering how it was the first spacecraft to carry macroscopic life (turtles) beyond LEO (around the Moon) and return it safely, on a Zond 5 mission.

    Funny how, out of both sides involved in Lunar Race, it is Russia who now has few decades of experience with a spacecraft essentially capable of beyond-LEO operation.

  4. Re:Endangered Lake??? on Carnivorous Swamp Beast Discovered In Madagascar · · Score: 1

    A critter with only one living individual left isn't endangered, it's functionally extinct.

  5. Re:And this is on /. because ...? on Carnivorous Swamp Beast Discovered In Madagascar · · Score: 1

    All of the listed areas practically didn't exist a mere century ago, most not really even half of that time (and some can be easily looked at more as areas of engineering)

    I didn't realize science was such a young thing...

    An example of a newfound beast which will be soon extinct, prompting is (perhaps... slightly...) to take a closer look at holocene extinction event - a very transformative thing - is decently notable.

  6. Re:Huge Hands on Carnivorous Swamp Beast Discovered In Madagascar · · Score: 1

    Hm, so not only humans in the US are overfed...

  7. Re:There are cats and there are cats on Carnivorous Swamp Beast Discovered In Madagascar · · Score: 1

    One other thing might be contributing greatly - this is an aquatic animal. Cats are furry; they become much slender and smaller when totally soaked.

  8. Re:They'd damn well better on Iran Acknowledges Espionage At Nuclear Facilities · · Score: 1

    "Wants"? Follow more closely what your leaders want sometimes...and most importantly what some of our "allies" want.
    Also, we can be pretty sure that proofs of funding (if such widespread, surely there) would be very useful - and indeed most likely already used. Recollect also what was the conduct of the "West" (for lack of a better term) on their soil, before the breach of diplomatic standards / "invasion" that you mention.

    Human rights issue stands on a very, very shaky legs. We don't have problems with supporting such regimes (most of the region is like that, also our "allies") as long as they are "on our side" - hence we ourselves demonstrate it's not much of a factor at all, just a rhetoric.

    Even if watching somebody closely is a good idea, that does not automatically make them an "enemy" - so again, why? Is it already decided / I didn't get the memo and now we just have to again find ways to actually treat them like ones treats an enemy?

  9. Re:Up Until Now? on Research Shows How Deaf Cats' Brains Re-Purpose Auditory Centers · · Score: 1

    One can always find a girlfriend who won't mind the lack of a monitor (though the particular implementation from that Wiki article is quite disturbing, I was aiming more at "tactile relief" stuff / oh well, first link will do; but I can't help but wonder: after so long stay in total darkness that the mind starts to "see sounds", what the effect would be when merely hearing a recording of some, uhm, girlfriend)

  10. Re:God's no dummy on Research Shows How Deaf Cats' Brains Re-Purpose Auditory Centers · · Score: 1

    Some of the ways by which people chose to name something fits, in practice, the category of "names", I suppose... especially since all of them are like that, also "true" one (unless the true hidden one never strictly existed, in that sense it wouldn't fulfill the above criteria obviously)

  11. Re:Something to think about on Iran Acknowledges Espionage At Nuclear Facilities · · Score: 1

    Wait, was the surveillance of Iraq in search of WMDs supposed to create them, is that how it works?

  12. Re:Why the secrecy? on Iran Acknowledges Espionage At Nuclear Facilities · · Score: 1

    Oh, right, I forgot we support now "if you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide"? (also, ask Hans Blix what do we think about inspectors providing us military intell^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hassurances there's no foul play going on)

  13. Re:keeping an open mind on Iran Acknowledges Espionage At Nuclear Facilities · · Score: 1

    In practice, despite the inspectors being pretty damn sure that there's no foul play going on, somebody might just wish for the invasion too much; indeed, probably using inspectors as a source of intelligence useful in the attack...

    Building underground is good if you have some defensive to the point of paranoia (not without very good reasons of course; doesn't change much in the end) neighbor.

  14. Re:Obviously on Iran Acknowledges Espionage At Nuclear Facilities · · Score: 1

    Depends what one counts I guess. If the category would be, say, "willingly contributing to societal collapse of some specific parts of local population" (to be most generic) it isn't as clear anymore... and some legacy of Manifest Destiny certainly remains alife.

  15. Re:Obviously on Iran Acknowledges Espionage At Nuclear Facilities · · Score: 1

    Though not nearly so bad as constantly misquoting some "rights" from some text about becoming independent...which wasn't made legally binding in any appreciable way.

  16. Re:They'd damn well better on Iran Acknowledges Espionage At Nuclear Facilities · · Score: 1

    In what way?

  17. Re:Obviously on Iran Acknowledges Espionage At Nuclear Facilities · · Score: 1

    Or they see it as a kind of entertainment (I hope... but such approach does seem to resonate with many woman, "of course I know it's BS, but I like to be amused")

  18. Re:They'd damn well better on Iran Acknowledges Espionage At Nuclear Facilities · · Score: 1

    "Enemies"?...

  19. Re:Scarecrows are as old as agriculture on Russian Army Upgrades Its Inflatable Weapons · · Score: 1

    Though they probably didn't work as intended, after he died...

  20. Re:not so tight grip on iPhone Opens Up Bluetooth For Data · · Score: 1

    Though quite possibly it's more frustrating if you're used to full BT functionality in every handset on the market... (well, "every other" once iPhone arrived)

  21. Re:Yeah, not going to happen. on Should Sony Team With Google On a PlayStation Phone? · · Score: 1

    Unless the point of some updates was specifically to greatly improve performance; and specs of SE phones surely aren't subpar.

    (yes, to 3.0 will be most likely a bad idea; but latest 2.x line seems to mostly make things snappier for semi-recent devices)

  22. Re:My cat isn't deaf on Research Shows How Deaf Cats' Brains Re-Purpose Auditory Centers · · Score: 1

    "Problems" doesn't mean "nothing" - but remember TV is a thing with some movement to track / change, a thing with sound; often a focal point for people when they are around (and again, they might influence it / there might be some Clever Hans Effect); isolating such factors would be difficult if they already contributed greatly towards giving the cat some habits.

    But how often does it react to silent stationary photographs with meaningful objects on them? Birds, owners, checking how it reacts to another cat communicating something visually - essentially a test of nonhuman social setting & reaction. There doesn't appear to be much in such cases (still, I might set up a webcam once with another cat, should be fun)

    Animals can be smart, but typically in a somewhat different way than people perceive it (indeed, we have problems / many biases of accurately approaching our own behaviors)

  23. Re:Like in Memento on Research Shows How Deaf Cats' Brains Re-Purpose Auditory Centers · · Score: 1

    No too accurate for sure; it essentially depicts a nightly wipe of memories accumulated in each given day, with overall functioning not impaired too much.
    Still, nicer than Memento setting/etc.

  24. Re:Yeah, not going to happen. on Should Sony Team With Google On a PlayStation Phone? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What lesson did they learn with CD, S/PDIF, HDV, Playstation (that one was to be a cooperation with Nintendo, guess who walked out) or 3.5" FDD? Generally, with a company so vast and diverse it's a bit pointless to generalize like that - many parts of them are quite open; often essentially fighting with other divisions (rootkits/DRM stuff pushed by music publishing division - bought into Sony not too long ago, BTW - while their audio players and SE music phones are decent - the latter also already have Android; or one of the more open & interoperable ebook reader ecosystems)

  25. Re:Yeah, not going to happen. on Should Sony Team With Google On a PlayStation Phone? · · Score: 1

    Bluray was indeed a collaborative effort; sure, with Sony one of the big guns, but...

    They do that more often than people think - probably it's just how such products, once popular and widely used, often aren't perceived as ones from (also) Sony (whereas failures are very noticeably almost only from them, obviously). From memory - together with only Philips: CD, S/PDIF (what do you think "S" and "P" stand for?), SACD, one of two progenitor formats to DVD. MSX computer standard. HDV. Playstation was born out of some cooperation with Nintendo, backstabbed by Nintendo. FDD is also fun to mention, though this one purely from Sony IIRC.