So trying to blind pilots in order to cause their aircraft to crash will only net you 25 years?
Who said he was trying to blind pilots in order to crash the plane? How do you know he wasn't just playing with his new laser pointer, trying to see if he can see the reflection off the plane? Sure, it's not the smartest thing to do, but it isn't like trying to bring down an airliner, either. They will have a tough time proving that his intent was to blind the pilots.
When I got a laser pointer years ago, I'd shine it at the wall on the building across the street from me. I wanted to see how good it would project a beam. I was not trying to blow up the building with the laser or kill everyone inside of it.
I mean, if I were to shoot a SAM at an airliner and get caught, I think I'd probably be looking at more than 25 years even if it missed.
If you shot a SAM at an airliner, that would show malicious intent. For what other reason would you possess a surface to air missile? I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure the law sees a laser pointer and a SAM in a different light, given their purposes and capabilities.
I think what we are seeing is what many predicted would happen- the government is using powers that it grabbed under the guise of "catching terrorists" against its own people. What used to be a simple criminal offense is now a major offense under new anti-terrorism laws. They are testing the waters trying to see how many things they can apply their new powers to. It seems that everything from smoking pot to teenagers playing with firecrackers to possessing a fake ID in order to get into bars will now have an anti-terrorism charge applied to it. The fact that these people aren't terrorists is irrelevant to a prosecutor trying to make a name for himself. The government has strong new powers and it will use them recklessly and mercilessly against its own people.
Re:horrible aerodynamic drag on paddle-wheel tires
on
Reinventing the Wheel
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· Score: 1
Gee, do you think maybe these engineers aren't total idiots?
I mean, seriously.
Not to be mean. It's a thought. I'm sure it took them all of 12 seconds to decide not to expose a bunch of radial fins on the side of the tire. Maybe another 4 to decide not to make the tire out of chalk, too. I bet they spent another 9 rejecting granite sidewalls as an option.
Once in a while I start to believe things like that. I start to think that "experts" know what they're doing. But then I see a major company release something like the Pontiac Aztec and I realize that just because some people are in a position to make a decision doesn't mean they should be in that position.
Who gave the greenlight to such a monstrosity? I don't know anybody who found that vehicle attractive. It has since been cancelled afer a short production run.
"Yesterday, a status report from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) operations center reports that the satellite is in 'safe mode' after losing (another) reaction wheel--the mechanisms used to point the spacecraft."
What a waste. Now that it's in safe mode the world can look forward to images taken in 640x480 resolution and 256 colors.
Troy Hurtubise, the Canadian who did the famous bear-proof suit documented in the movie Project grizzly, spent 18 years researching how to make a flameproof material, and finally has it. It's far more heat-resistant than the space shuttle tiles, far more durable, and far cheaper.
It should be mentioned that not only are his new tiles flameproof, but they're bear-proof as well. This is very beneficial for the shuttle during re-entry, where it has to survive not only the intense heat of re-entry, but the occasional high-altitude bear attack as well.
Does it worry anyone that the guys at NASA grossly miscalculated the life of the bot? Was this done to save face if it screwed up, because this margin of error, and if you look at it as it is, it's pretty embarrassing. I mean great that its still going, but what pencil pusher calculated the battery/recharge time or batt life and came to the conclusion that it will probably last 3 months?
When trying to guess the life expectancy of the rovers, NASA can only go by past experience, and the last rover they had on Mars, Sojourner, lasted 3 months.
The next thing they'll try to say is that slashdot readers are nerds, or that we're not smooth with the women.
Re:It ain't just the cell phone....
on
Life Interrupted
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· Score: 1
All the things you mentioned are also distractions. They do distract the driver from driving.
When calculating risk, there is the intensity of that risk and also the element of time. You might be able to do something that's dangerous once and have hardly any risk, but if you do it a hundred times the risk is far worse. Take extreme sports such as BASE jumping for instance. People that do that stuff as a one time thrill generally make out ok, but people who make a career out of it often end up dead.
I don't think the act of talking on the cell phone while driving is nearly as distracting or dangerous as putting on makup or turning around to yell at the kids for torturing the dog, but the element of time really amplifies that risk. Most people don't tell at the kids the entire time they're driving, but I know plenty of people who stay on the phone constantly while they're driving. When you get someone who talks on the phone nearly 100% of the time they're driving, the chances of them crashing due to the phone distraction is much higher.
Exposure over time is what really determines the danger of an activity.
It seems that nowadays the news has become entertainment instead of information. Journalists scurry to find ways to make The Next Big Headline (tm). Instead of finding ways to make people feel better or do something to help those that need it, they try to find ways to surprise and upset people- anything that will make people watch their channel or read their newspaper.
Now in the wake of a real natural disaster, all the journalists are hopping on the "tsunami disaster" bandwagon. They're thinking "how can I apply the fear from the disaster which just took place on the other side of the Earth to my own hometown? I bet that'll sell a lot of papers!"
Summary- there seems to be a big market for profiting from fear and doom 'n gloom predictions and not a very big market for helping people.
However, beware of the 486DX50 vs the 486DX250. The 486DX 50 was a true 50Mhz part whereas the DX2 were only 50Mhz internal to the chip with the bus running at 25Mhz. Same thing for 486DX2 66's. Most programs ran slower on them than a trus 486DX50 due to the slower (33Mhz) bus speed.
Yup. Then Intel had to confuse the issue by releasing the 486DX4. Just as the DX2-50 had a 2x multiplier with a 25 mhz bus and a 50 mhz core speed, you'd think the DX4-100 would have a 4x multiplier with a 25 mhz bus and 100 mhz core speed. But it was actually a 3x multiplier, with a 33 mhz bus speed. They should have caused it a DX3
The 486 has had a built-in math coprocessor ever since it debuted. After the 486 was around for a while, they made a stripped down version without a coprocessor called the 486SX. The plain 486's were called 486DX.
You could get a coprocessor for the 486SX, but not the DX. From what I've heard, the original 486SX's were actually re-badged 486DX's whose math coprocessor unit was either not functional or just disabled. When you bought the 487SX "co-processor" you were actually buying a fully functional 486DX that disabled the other CPU on the board.
After the heat shield, what will Opportunity look at?... Are there scientific targets identified, or are they maybe going to try to "sprint" Opportunity and see how far it can get in the shortest amount of time?
I have the NASA rover plans right here, and the schedule is as follows:
1. explore Endurance crater (complete) 2. examine discarded heat shield (complete) 3. run rover for endurance trials 4. sprint rover (you called it) 5. race rover 6. jump rover 7. make rover do acrobatic tricks 8. crash rover 9. profit
That's bullshit. The entire THSD - including the batteries and motor - is around 800lbs. This is *easily* offset by the fact that the Prius doesn't need a wasteful transmission. You might be able to save 400lbs using a vehicle with a manual transmission, but that's not really comparable to the automatic Prius, is it?
I don't understand where you're getting your numbers. How much do you think an automatic transmission weighs?
My car has a small aluminum 4 cylinder with a lightweight transaxle (front wheel drive). The transmission weighs under 100 lbs. The engine/auto transmission combined weigh about 330 lbs.
Also, when you say conventional cars have "wasteful" transmissions, where do you get you get your efficiency figures? An automatic transaxle with a lockup torque converter has about an 18% loss between the crank and the drive wheels. What's the efficiency of the Prius's driveline? It has an engine turning a generator which makes the electricity to turn an electric motor. You lose some efficiency in the alternator, you lose some in the wires, and you lose some in the motor.
I don't think the unorthodox drivetrain is the main factor that makes the Prius so efficient, I think it's mainly the fact that it's a small, light, aerodynamic car without much horsepower. Similar small, light, low HP cars also get good gas mileage. A Geo Metro, for instance, got 50 mpg back in 1989, and it wasn't the most aerodynamic thing. I'm sure technology has improved since then. The Opel Corsa I rented when I went to Europe was pretty nice and it got 50+ mpg. And that was the gas version. The diesel version gets a little over 60 mpg.
Noting his crucial role in country's technological development Lu Yongxiang, president of china handed over a certificate of asteroid possession to Zhu at ceremony and workshop last Sunday.
Before anyone else takes it, I claim the Moon! (I'm printing up a Certificate of Moon Possession as we speak)
I'm no expert in aerodynamics or atmospheric dynamics, but don't you take a huge risk with that (apart from the obvious things) with the help of a nasty gust, updraft or the like, an un recoverable spin could occur.... The problem with having a set of wings and no engine is once you our out of control, recovery won't be easy.
With the wingsuit, you can fold your arms and legs in and get rid of your "wings", and lose all lift. So it would be easy to recover from a spin if he went into one. He'd merely go from an out of control aircraft to a controlled skydive (if you count falling like a rock as "controlled":-) )
Also, about the comment about having no engine, as another poster pointed out having no engine can help prevent the spin. It is often the torque of the engine and/or the propeller wash over one wing which causes one wing to stall before the other and cause the plane to go into a flat spin in the first place. When you stall the plane with the engine on, it's called a "power on stall" and it can help induce a flat spin.
In any event, as most posters have pointed out he's more likely to pancake into the ground.
They set up the chamber at Martian atmospheric pressure, then cranked up a fan to blow some insanely high wind speed. The fine dust on the floor didn't even budge; there just wasn't enough air to make anything happen.
Did they decrease the gravity also? Of course not. That's a huge factor right there. We have more than double the gravity of Mars.
That was taken on the crater wall. There are other pictures that show the surrounding area and it's obvious that it's not water or ice. That one frame that you showed does look like ice/water, but when you see a wider angle shot of the area you can tell that it's not ice/water.
The angle that the "puddle" is laying on the wall tells you that it isn't liquid, since it would run downhill.
For one, as others have pointed out, the Russian name refers to a leader position.
It's also not the RS-18 in Russia, it was either RS-20 or R-36M depending on who you ask.
The name Satan is mostly because all NATO designations of Soviet surface to surface missiles begin with "s"- Sapwood, Sasin, Saddler, Satan, Scud, etc.
While reading this thread, I found myself wondering what some of the other well known rockets could lift. So I quickly dug up some results and decided to share for reference:
Rocket, payload to low earth orbit, payload to geosynchronous orbit
SS-18 "Satan" 8,000 lbs LEO
Atlas Centaur 10,000 lbs LEO, 4,500 lbs Geo
Ariane 5 39,000 lbs LEO, 12,000 lbs Geo
Titan IV 47,000 lbs leo, 12,760 lbs geo
Delta IV heavy 48,000 lbs LEO, 28,124 geo
Space Shuttle 63,000 lbs leo (230,000 lbs including the shuttle itself)
Space Shuttle C (doesn't exist yet) 180,000 lbs leo
England cracked the Enigma machine, not Poland. It was Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.
I really doubt the US started the polish jokes. Usually such jokes are made to knock your neighbor, such as US/Canada jokes and British/French jokes. There's no friction between the US and Poland. If I had to guess, I'd say Germany started it. I had a friend that was from Poland and they had jokes about the Soviets.
Slashdot Mirror
So trying to blind pilots in order to cause their aircraft to crash will only net you 25 years?
Who said he was trying to blind pilots in order to crash the plane? How do you know he wasn't just playing with his new laser pointer, trying to see if he can see the reflection off the plane? Sure, it's not the smartest thing to do, but it isn't like trying to bring down an airliner, either. They will have a tough time proving that his intent was to blind the pilots.
When I got a laser pointer years ago, I'd shine it at the wall on the building across the street from me. I wanted to see how good it would project a beam. I was not trying to blow up the building with the laser or kill everyone inside of it.
I mean, if I were to shoot a SAM at an airliner and get caught, I think I'd probably be looking at more than 25 years even if it missed.
If you shot a SAM at an airliner, that would show malicious intent. For what other reason would you possess a surface to air missile? I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure the law sees a laser pointer and a SAM in a different light, given their purposes and capabilities.
I think what we are seeing is what many predicted would happen- the government is using powers that it grabbed under the guise of "catching terrorists" against its own people. What used to be a simple criminal offense is now a major offense under new anti-terrorism laws. They are testing the waters trying to see how many things they can apply their new powers to. It seems that everything from smoking pot to teenagers playing with firecrackers to possessing a fake ID in order to get into bars will now have an anti-terrorism charge applied to it. The fact that these people aren't terrorists is irrelevant to a prosecutor trying to make a name for himself. The government has strong new powers and it will use them recklessly and mercilessly against its own people.
Gee, do you think maybe these engineers aren't total idiots?
I mean, seriously.
Not to be mean. It's a thought. I'm sure it took them all of 12 seconds to decide not to expose a bunch of radial fins on the side of the tire. Maybe another 4 to decide not to make the tire out of chalk, too. I bet they spent another 9 rejecting granite sidewalls as an option.
Once in a while I start to believe things like that. I start to think that "experts" know what they're doing. But then I see a major company release something like the Pontiac Aztec and I realize that just because some people are in a position to make a decision doesn't mean they should be in that position.
Who gave the greenlight to such a monstrosity? I don't know anybody who found that vehicle attractive. It has since been cancelled afer a short production run.
"Yesterday, a status report from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) operations center reports that the satellite is in 'safe mode' after losing (another) reaction wheel--the mechanisms used to point the spacecraft."
What a waste. Now that it's in safe mode the world can look forward to images taken in 640x480 resolution and 256 colors.
Troy Hurtubise, the Canadian who did the famous bear-proof suit documented in the movie Project grizzly, spent 18 years researching how to make a flameproof material, and finally has it. It's far more heat-resistant than the space shuttle tiles, far more durable, and far cheaper.
It should be mentioned that not only are his new tiles flameproof, but they're bear-proof as well. This is very beneficial for the shuttle during re-entry, where it has to survive not only the intense heat of re-entry, but the occasional high-altitude bear attack as well.
Tires on a car don't last a year on a smooth road for example.
My tires have been on my car for 4 years and they still have tread left. Many tires are rated for 100,000 miles.
Does it worry anyone that the guys at NASA grossly miscalculated the life of the bot? Was this done to save face if it screwed up, because this margin of error, and if you look at it as it is, it's pretty embarrassing. I mean great that its still going, but what pencil pusher calculated the battery/recharge time or batt life and came to the conclusion that it will probably last 3 months?
When trying to guess the life expectancy of the rovers, NASA can only go by past experience, and the last rover they had on Mars, Sojourner, lasted 3 months.
That's my guess, at least.
What kind of nonsense is that?
The next thing they'll try to say is that slashdot readers are nerds, or that we're not smooth with the women.
All the things you mentioned are also distractions. They do distract the driver from driving.
When calculating risk, there is the intensity of that risk and also the element of time. You might be able to do something that's dangerous once and have hardly any risk, but if you do it a hundred times the risk is far worse. Take extreme sports such as BASE jumping for instance. People that do that stuff as a one time thrill generally make out ok, but people who make a career out of it often end up dead.
I don't think the act of talking on the cell phone while driving is nearly as distracting or dangerous as putting on makup or turning around to yell at the kids for torturing the dog, but the element of time really amplifies that risk. Most people don't tell at the kids the entire time they're driving, but I know plenty of people who stay on the phone constantly while they're driving. When you get someone who talks on the phone nearly 100% of the time they're driving, the chances of them crashing due to the phone distraction is much higher.
Exposure over time is what really determines the danger of an activity.
It seems that nowadays the news has become entertainment instead of information. Journalists scurry to find ways to make The Next Big Headline (tm). Instead of finding ways to make people feel better or do something to help those that need it, they try to find ways to surprise and upset people- anything that will make people watch their channel or read their newspaper.
Now in the wake of a real natural disaster, all the journalists are hopping on the "tsunami disaster" bandwagon. They're thinking "how can I apply the fear from the disaster which just took place on the other side of the Earth to my own hometown? I bet that'll sell a lot of papers!"
Summary- there seems to be a big market for profiting from fear and doom 'n gloom predictions and not a very big market for helping people.
However, beware of the 486DX50 vs the 486DX250. The 486DX 50 was a true 50Mhz part whereas the DX2 were only 50Mhz internal to the chip with the bus running at 25Mhz. Same thing for 486DX2 66's. Most programs ran slower on them than a trus 486DX50 due to the slower (33Mhz) bus speed.
Yup. Then Intel had to confuse the issue by releasing the 486DX4. Just as the DX2-50 had a 2x multiplier with a 25 mhz bus and a 50 mhz core speed, you'd think the DX4-100 would have a 4x multiplier with a 25 mhz bus and 100 mhz core speed. But it was actually a 3x multiplier, with a 33 mhz bus speed. They should have caused it a DX3
The 486 has had a built-in math coprocessor ever since it debuted. After the 486 was around for a while, they made a stripped down version without a coprocessor called the 486SX. The plain 486's were called 486DX.
You could get a coprocessor for the 486SX, but not the DX. From what I've heard, the original 486SX's were actually re-badged 486DX's whose math coprocessor unit was either not functional or just disabled. When you bought the 487SX "co-processor" you were actually buying a fully functional 486DX that disabled the other CPU on the board.
After the heat shield, what will Opportunity look at?... Are there scientific targets identified, or are they maybe going to try to "sprint" Opportunity and see how far it can get in the shortest amount of time?
I have the NASA rover plans right here, and the schedule is as follows:
1. explore Endurance crater (complete)
2. examine discarded heat shield (complete)
3. run rover for endurance trials
4. sprint rover (you called it)
5. race rover
6. jump rover
7. make rover do acrobatic tricks
8. crash rover
9. profit
That's bullshit. The entire THSD - including the batteries and motor - is around 800lbs. This is *easily* offset by the fact that the Prius doesn't need a wasteful transmission. You might be able to save 400lbs using a vehicle with a manual transmission, but that's not really comparable to the automatic Prius, is it?
I don't understand where you're getting your numbers. How much do you think an automatic transmission weighs?
My car has a small aluminum 4 cylinder with a lightweight transaxle (front wheel drive). The transmission weighs under 100 lbs. The engine/auto transmission combined weigh about 330 lbs.
Also, when you say conventional cars have "wasteful" transmissions, where do you get you get your efficiency figures? An automatic transaxle with a lockup torque converter has about an 18% loss between the crank and the drive wheels. What's the efficiency of the Prius's driveline? It has an engine turning a generator which makes the electricity to turn an electric motor. You lose some efficiency in the alternator, you lose some in the wires, and you lose some in the motor.
I don't think the unorthodox drivetrain is the main factor that makes the Prius so efficient, I think it's mainly the fact that it's a small, light, aerodynamic car without much horsepower. Similar small, light, low HP cars also get good gas mileage. A Geo Metro, for instance, got 50 mpg back in 1989, and it wasn't the most aerodynamic thing. I'm sure technology has improved since then. The Opel Corsa I rented when I went to Europe was pretty nice and it got 50+ mpg. And that was the gas version. The diesel version gets a little over 60 mpg.
Noting his crucial role in country's technological development Lu Yongxiang, president of china handed over a certificate of asteroid possession to Zhu at ceremony and workshop last Sunday.
Before anyone else takes it, I claim the Moon! (I'm printing up a Certificate of Moon Possession as we speak)
I'm no expert in aerodynamics or atmospheric dynamics, but don't you take a huge risk with that (apart from the obvious things) with the help of a nasty gust, updraft or the like, an un recoverable spin could occur.... The problem with having a set of wings and no engine is once you our out of control, recovery won't be easy.
:-) )
With the wingsuit, you can fold your arms and legs in and get rid of your "wings", and lose all lift. So it would be easy to recover from a spin if he went into one. He'd merely go from an out of control aircraft to a controlled skydive (if you count falling like a rock as "controlled"
Also, about the comment about having no engine, as another poster pointed out having no engine can help prevent the spin. It is often the torque of the engine and/or the propeller wash over one wing which causes one wing to stall before the other and cause the plane to go into a flat spin in the first place. When you stall the plane with the engine on, it's called a "power on stall" and it can help induce a flat spin.
In any event, as most posters have pointed out he's more likely to pancake into the ground.
The coralized site seems to be hurting more than the original site.
Congratulations, you're smarter than nobody. Post as an anonymous coward so people don't see you for the anal twit that you are.
They set up the chamber at Martian atmospheric pressure, then cranked up a fan to blow some insanely high wind speed. The fine dust on the floor didn't even budge; there just wasn't enough air to make anything happen.
Did they decrease the gravity also? Of course not. That's a huge factor right there. We have more than double the gravity of Mars.
That was taken on the crater wall. There are other pictures that show the surrounding area and it's obvious that it's not water or ice. That one frame that you showed does look like ice/water, but when you see a wider angle shot of the area you can tell that it's not ice/water.
j pg
The angle that the "puddle" is laying on the wall tells you that it isn't liquid, since it would run downhill.
Here's a high res pic of an area nearby:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA07083.
You can see that the "puddles" are actually deposits of fine sand that are dark in color.
It depends on the scale of this image... If the little round "pebbles" are actually big boulders, then that's a decent sized pond or small lake.
Just how big do you think the rovers are? That was taken by Opportunity.
:US will never ever compete with France or India in space technology.
lol
Lots of your info is off.
For one, as others have pointed out, the Russian name refers to a leader position.
It's also not the RS-18 in Russia, it was either RS-20 or R-36M depending on who you ask.
The name Satan is mostly because all NATO designations of Soviet surface to surface missiles begin with "s"- Sapwood, Sasin, Saddler, Satan, Scud, etc.
While reading this thread, I found myself wondering what some of the other well known rockets could lift. So I quickly dug up some results and decided to share for reference:
Rocket, payload to low earth orbit, payload to geosynchronous orbit
SS-18 "Satan" 8,000 lbs LEO
Atlas Centaur 10,000 lbs LEO, 4,500 lbs Geo
Ariane 5 39,000 lbs LEO, 12,000 lbs Geo
Titan IV 47,000 lbs leo, 12,760 lbs geo
Delta IV heavy 48,000 lbs LEO, 28,124 geo
Space Shuttle 63,000 lbs leo (230,000 lbs including the shuttle itself)
Space Shuttle C (doesn't exist yet) 180,000 lbs leo
Energia 190,000 lbs leo, 48,500 lbs Geo
Saturn V 285,000 lbs LEO, 107,000 lbs to the Moon
England cracked the Enigma machine, not Poland. It was Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.
I really doubt the US started the polish jokes. Usually such jokes are made to knock your neighbor, such as US/Canada jokes and British/French jokes. There's no friction between the US and Poland. If I had to guess, I'd say Germany started it. I had a friend that was from Poland and they had jokes about the Soviets.
Now here is a new tactic for supporting space exploration. Announce that there are liquid hydrocarbons --- OIL --- on the surface of Titan.
Titan? What's that? I think you mean "Halliburtia"