Why not just measure all the mass in the universe and divide it by some constant that gives the current Kg value? Then it would be a true universal value. Heh.
Oddly enough, I had just finished reading that message before coming over here. I'm a fairly regular contributor to the Wiktionary project. It's pretty rare that I learn about an event before reading it on Slashdot.
This is an argument of apples and oranges. Venus has a thick atmosphere because said atmosphere is sulphur dioxide and other easily ionized gases. Those gases are so ionized from the solar radiation that they act as if there was a magnetic field. The solar radiation itself stops the solar wind from taking the gases away.
Mars has an atmosphere of carbon dioxide because that gas, too, is easily ionized. Nitrogen and oxygen, on the other hand, will leave without the magnetic field. The magnetic field argument is valid.
I'm in favor of trying the experiment. We need to learn how to modify the climate of a planet so we have some chance of fixing what we've done to Earth. Eventually we're going to have a price to pay for our actions, and we need to be ready to do that. Mars could teach us how, and right now it's worthless for anything else.
I expect you're right. That little point won't have escaped their attention.
I would also point out that the very fact you downloaded it is evidence that you suspect there's illegal stuff on your computer. I'd bet that, if nothing else, all IPs that show up in the d/l logs will also go on the watchlist.
Hmm, a thought: If they claim that, can the claim be enforced? That is, if it is found later that it does report stuff, can they be sued or prosecuted for the deception?
I don't think so. I have such a router connected to two Windows boxes and this FreeBSD machine. Both Win boxes have BlackIce, AV, and scheduled scans, etc. I constantly find crap on them, but never on the BSD box. Seems like the bad guys can get past anything there is to protect Win.
Note: I know the reason there aren't many pieces of malware for UNIX-like systems has more to do with market share than practicality. Please don't point that out to me. I'm just saying the router idea won't solve the problem.
That's a "rebound effect". Whatever caused that crater was so big and hit so hard that it penetrated the moon's crust. The more plastic inner material was violently compressed, then shot out through the center of the crater forming the "mountain". It's a rare phenomenon, but I don't have any trouble believing it's natural.
Somebody needs to write a standard for what and where dependencies are installed. Few things are more aggravating than trying to fix a missing dependency when you don't even know where the app expects it to be.
The "fundamental constants" have to drift. Here's why: The universe is expanding. We see the constants as "constant" because and only because we are measuring them from within the frame of reference in which they are constant. If an observer could stand outside the universe, he would see the constants change to keep up with the expansion.
Now, if the universal expansion was perfect, the constants would also be perfect over time. But the expansion isn't perfect, so the constants are forced to drift slightly in order to make the parts fit together. Being able to measure that drift is useful in understanding how the universe really works. Relativity - it's a bitch sometimes!
That's exactly the problem. The RIAA and MPAA are modern day equivalents of the Gestapo. With the law on their side, and enough clout to make sure it stays there, they ride roughshod over anyone they can. It's not about collecting settlements, it's about the publicity. What they want is to make everyone believe they are watching and that they're invincible. And they're doing a damned good job. We need some kind of organized resistance movement, something that gets the same kind of publicity against their tactics. But who has the kind of money and political clout to make it happen?
No, boycotting won't impress the *AA. But the loss of money would impress the recording companies that are members of the *AA. If they felt a big enough crunch in their bottom line, and understood that the *AA actions were the reason, there would be changes.
In point of fact, terrorists could recover and use explosives from such wrecks, many of which are in well known positions and in shallow water. Probably someone should be doing something about it. Like clean up your fooking mess, dudes!
The explosives would not be inert, even if water has leaked into the casings. Most American-made ordinance of that era used TNT or TNT-boosted Amatol. Both are pretty stable to aging and TNT is immune to water. If anything, TNT tends to become more shock-sensitive due to slow recrystallization. So the boosters, at least, are very dangerous. What I can't understand is why it took so long to recognize the problem! God's sakes, it would have been much easier to deal with it decades ago before corrosion made things worse. Someone wasn't doing any rocket-scientist thinking!
And before you can say the astronauts aboard Mir have lived in space for long periods, I reply YES! And why do you think their time outside in space suits is limited? The space station was built with shielding against radiation. This is practical for an object built in orbit, but not for ships launched from the ground because of the weight considerations. And not for space suits because of the extra thickness that would limit movement too much. The space agencies take radiation very seriously, that's all I'm trying to say.
I must disagree with you, sir. I'm not talking about ultraviolet radiation that causes skin cancer. That's mostly moderated by the atmosphere, and wouldn't be much affected. The problem would be X-rays, gamma rays, and charged particles, to which humans are much more sensitive than other species.
Without the magnetic field, the levels of these at the surface would be similar to the present levels in space, and space radiation has been a major concern in the plans for future manned missions to other planets. We know that humans are quickly harmed by hard radiation, and a way to protect astronauts must be found before such missions can be undertaken.
We are not talking about minor radiation increases at the surface. It would be roughly equivalent to the levels in Hiroshima shortly after the bombing - very dangerous. Human DNA is quickly mutated by this kind of exposure.
As a point of interest, the cockroach is among the most radiation resistant of creatures, and oddly enough, it's the longest surviving species. Perhaps that is not a coincidence.
I call bulls**t on that. As a Geologist, I can speak with some authority on the subject of magnetic field reversals. There have been hundreds of reversals in the earth's history, and the one that happens to correlate with the impact is merely one in a long series. We don't know why the field reverses, but it doesn't appear to have anything to do with external events.
We also don't know how long the reversals take to complete, and that's the worrisome aspect. If it happens fairly quickly, there wouldn't be too much of a problem. But if it takes thousands of years, mankind would be in serious trouble, maybe even to the point of extinction. Why? Because that field is all that protects us from the ionizing radiation from the sun. We might have to become cave dwellers again just to survive as a species, and that's no joke!
Given the evolutionary success of the cockroach, something like 600 million years I think, that's probably intelligent enough to get the job done.
Seriously, the only real requirement is self-preservation. Humans can still select the target sites and evaluate what is found there. The job of the AI is simply to get the rover there without self-destructing on the way. That narrows the range of requirements quite a bit. Just don't fall off a cliff, drive into deep sand, etc. I think it's do-able.
That's already in the works. Don't you follow the Science Channel?:)
Seriously, they are planning to test methods of drilling on Europa there. The problem is to get it done without introducing any microbes into the water, because then their findings would be contaminated and useless. So they're working very carefully on the design of the devices they're going to use.
Actually that's a description of how your screen memory works. Anyone who has ever made a graphic display for DOS in Assembly Language is familiar with that. You can actually build a new page in memory and switch it into the screen memory range, thus making a very fast redraw possible. Not that I suppose anyone here cares...
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Gates is absolutely right. I found that out in my first college year.
Why not just measure all the mass in the universe and divide it by some constant that gives the current Kg value? Then it would be a true universal value. Heh.
Oddly enough, I had just finished reading that message before coming over here. I'm a fairly regular contributor to the Wiktionary project. It's pretty rare that I learn about an event before reading it on Slashdot.
Mars has an atmosphere of carbon dioxide because that gas, too, is easily ionized. Nitrogen and oxygen, on the other hand, will leave without the magnetic field. The magnetic field argument is valid.
I'm in favor of trying the experiment. We need to learn how to modify the climate of a planet so we have some chance of fixing what we've done to Earth. Eventually we're going to have a price to pay for our actions, and we need to be ready to do that. Mars could teach us how, and right now it's worthless for anything else.
I would also point out that the very fact you downloaded it is evidence that you suspect there's illegal stuff on your computer. I'd bet that, if nothing else, all IPs that show up in the d/l logs will also go on the watchlist.
Hmm, a thought: If they claim that, can the claim be enforced? That is, if it is found later that it does report stuff, can they be sued or prosecuted for the deception?
it won't be used by the MPAA at all to track... And of course, those people can be trusted. Yep.
Note: I know the reason there aren't many pieces of malware for UNIX-like systems has more to do with market share than practicality. Please don't point that out to me. I'm just saying the router idea won't solve the problem.
That's a "rebound effect". Whatever caused that crater was so big and hit so hard that it penetrated the moon's crust. The more plastic inner material was violently compressed, then shot out through the center of the crater forming the "mountain". It's a rare phenomenon, but I don't have any trouble believing it's natural.
Somebody needs to write a standard for what and where dependencies are installed. Few things are more aggravating than trying to fix a missing dependency when you don't even know where the app expects it to be.
Yeah, ham radio operators have a saying that's old as the hills: If you want more signal, stick up more metal.
Now, if the universal expansion was perfect, the constants would also be perfect over time. But the expansion isn't perfect, so the constants are forced to drift slightly in order to make the parts fit together. Being able to measure that drift is useful in understanding how the universe really works. Relativity - it's a bitch sometimes!
I agree. It doesn't make any sense to build a database that you can't find anything in. Does Walmart have a Cray? I tend to doubt the claim.
That's exactly the problem. The RIAA and MPAA are modern day equivalents of the Gestapo. With the law on their side, and enough clout to make sure it stays there, they ride roughshod over anyone they can. It's not about collecting settlements, it's about the publicity. What they want is to make everyone believe they are watching and that they're invincible. And they're doing a damned good job. We need some kind of organized resistance movement, something that gets the same kind of publicity against their tactics. But who has the kind of money and political clout to make it happen?
No, boycotting won't impress the *AA. But the loss of money would impress the recording companies that are members of the *AA. If they felt a big enough crunch in their bottom line, and understood that the *AA actions were the reason, there would be changes.
In point of fact, terrorists could recover and use explosives from such wrecks, many of which are in well known positions and in shallow water. Probably someone should be doing something about it. Like clean up your fooking mess, dudes!
The explosives would not be inert, even if water has leaked into the casings. Most American-made ordinance of that era used TNT or TNT-boosted Amatol. Both are pretty stable to aging and TNT is immune to water. If anything, TNT tends to become more shock-sensitive due to slow recrystallization. So the boosters, at least, are very dangerous. What I can't understand is why it took so long to recognize the problem! God's sakes, it would have been much easier to deal with it decades ago before corrosion made things worse. Someone wasn't doing any rocket-scientist thinking!
And before you can say the astronauts aboard Mir have lived in space for long periods, I reply YES! And why do you think their time outside in space suits is limited? The space station was built with shielding against radiation. This is practical for an object built in orbit, but not for ships launched from the ground because of the weight considerations. And not for space suits because of the extra thickness that would limit movement too much. The space agencies take radiation very seriously, that's all I'm trying to say.
Without the magnetic field, the levels of these at the surface would be similar to the present levels in space, and space radiation has been a major concern in the plans for future manned missions to other planets. We know that humans are quickly harmed by hard radiation, and a way to protect astronauts must be found before such missions can be undertaken.
We are not talking about minor radiation increases at the surface. It would be roughly equivalent to the levels in Hiroshima shortly after the bombing - very dangerous. Human DNA is quickly mutated by this kind of exposure.
As a point of interest, the cockroach is among the most radiation resistant of creatures, and oddly enough, it's the longest surviving species. Perhaps that is not a coincidence.
We also don't know how long the reversals take to complete, and that's the worrisome aspect. If it happens fairly quickly, there wouldn't be too much of a problem. But if it takes thousands of years, mankind would be in serious trouble, maybe even to the point of extinction. Why? Because that field is all that protects us from the ionizing radiation from the sun. We might have to become cave dwellers again just to survive as a species, and that's no joke!
Given the evolutionary success of the cockroach, something like 600 million years I think, that's probably intelligent enough to get the job done. Seriously, the only real requirement is self-preservation. Humans can still select the target sites and evaluate what is found there. The job of the AI is simply to get the rover there without self-destructing on the way. That narrows the range of requirements quite a bit. Just don't fall off a cliff, drive into deep sand, etc. I think it's do-able.
Write in sloppy block letters: Ve know who you are. Do it vun more time und ve get NASTY!
That's already in the works. Don't you follow the Science Channel? :)
Seriously, they are planning to test methods of drilling on Europa there. The problem is to get it done without introducing any microbes into the water, because then their findings would be contaminated and useless. So they're working very carefully on the design of the devices they're going to use.
Wow and then some! I just went there and got good old GOATSE in the face. Thanks big bunches, whoever did that.
Actually that's a description of how your screen memory works. Anyone who has ever made a graphic display for DOS in Assembly Language is familiar with that. You can actually build a new page in memory and switch it into the screen memory range, thus making a very fast redraw possible. Not that I suppose anyone here cares...