It is expected to be launched by the ESA in the second half of 2011, and will be operated in a Lissajous orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrangian point.
Let's hope they will agree on non-intersecating orbits for Gaia and JWST.
Gaia team: Hey! We were here first! JWST team: "Here"? You are oscillating all around the place! Gaia team: Ours is an elegant Lissajous orbit. What is yours? JWST team: We'll pwn the L2 point itself! Gaia team: No way! Our probe will intersect it in 13 days. JWST team: Metric days or imperial days? Gaia team: What do you mean? Days are days. JWST team: Wait! Your probe steered! Gaia team: We told you: it's a Lissa... *CRASH!*
Actually, my comment was meant to be ironic. Not toward your unusual politeness, but toward the tones most commonly used here and on most forums ("fora"?). I totally agree with you about the need for some kindness in any constructive dialogue.
Ok, now I'm the one wandering offtopic...
Thanks in advance for advancing my understanding. Apologies if there is anything akin to an apples/oranges misunderstanding at the base of my query...
Many thanks to you & the OP. You (both) are very tactful, as I skimmed right past the relevant Wiki section you noted so graciously. I'll try to do more exhaustive research before jumping in with questions next time.
Watch out! This kind of language is grossly inappropriate both here and on most Internet forum. Your politeness won't be tolerated for long. You have been warned!
Either fire two U-235 subcritical masses into one another at a high velocity to form a critical mass, or compress a hemisphere of fissile material with explosives.
Ha! They managed to let you and many others believe THAT! Excellent job by the Secret Services. No wonder no rogue terrorist group managed to build one so far. They were all put on false track by this kind of disinformation.
Now you tell me! I didn't know about the plutonium "spark plug" need: the detailed instructions in the Tom Clancy novel didn't even mention it. That explains the flop of my last backyard test! Luckily I didn't throw away all that good plutonium...
Wouldn't be more honest to say "We have no clue when fusion energy will be practical. Maybe some fundamental research breakthrough will make it doable next year, maybe we need to struggle with the current approach for another thirty years. Please fund research" ?
Very true, and the outcome is not written yet. After one year, I don't see lots of Windows Media Photo format images around. The same can't be said about Windows Media Video, unfortunately.
If you must buy Vista, it might be advisable to sit on your wallet for a while.
I'd say: if you are going to buy any software, it might be advisable to estimate how much its benefits are worth to you. If the price is higher than that, don't buy it. Vista probably makes sense for someone who "needs" DX10 (debatable, in my opinion) or a versioning filesystem, but hardly for millions of computer users.
[Call to Dell sales support follows]
-Dell? You totally botched up my order! I wanted Damn Small Linux 3 on my PC, not 3 fucking small PCs and a cup of sabayon!
What is the evil plan behind the acquisition of a huge icy moon weighting almost 18 millions billions tons? Easy. Move it in Earth orbit and threat your competitors to crush their headquarters with the power of millions of H bombs if they don't hand you ONE HUNDRED THOUSANDS BILIONS DOLLARS!!! MhuuahahahAHAH!!!
the human eye is guaranteed to register ABSOLUTELY ZERO change
At least, the color-blind human eye. I think the saturated/desaturated pattern you (seem to) describe, if made big enough to be detectable by a crap phone camera, would be as much visible as the one described in the article.
Assuming they didn't do it on purpose, you must admit that it's not easy to imagine where to trace the line between "innocuous prank" and "terror act" in our times. You always end up underestimating stupidity. Don't know if the same stunt would have caused the same level of alarm in an European city. I suspect not, but you can guess we (our governments and mass media) are doing our best to reach the USA in this game of "scare the masses".
Even counting total emission per country (as opposed to per capita), the same source shows USA to be the biggest CO2 producer, with 23.8% of world total, as compared to 14.6% for China. Of course, the data are from 1997, when the Kyoto Treaty was written. I expect the chinese quota of CO2 to have grown more than the american one since then. But an important aspect of the Treaty is that it allows for higher emission levels for developing countries, as long as they fall into this cathegory. When a country has grown out of third world, it is obliged by the same standards as other developed countries.
Anyway, all of this is purely academic. It is too late for Kyoto compliance to make a difference. Due to long years of inaction not only by the USA, but surely encouraged by them (I don't care to pinpoint what administration is more at fault), now the situation asks for way more drastic actions to be taken.
I still have hope. Maybe California is showing the way you can reshape your industries while making profits in new ways, and America can return to be seen as a leader instead of a deadweight.
This moment could be remebered as "The day the biggest CO2 producer nation in the world acknowledged a reality it ignored for years". Let's hope it's not too late to prevent irreversible runaway effects. For what it's worth, one day or another I'd like to hear some contrite words from people who stubbornly denied the need for any action about Global Warming up to now. A bit late, a bit useless, but should be an obligation for someone who may have contributed to bring the world beyond a point of no return.
A previous experience in Italy shows that something can be done even against lava flows, not just slow mud eruptions. If not at the volcano emission site, at least in the "tubes" that keep lava hot and allow it to travel very far semi-buried under its own crust.
In 1992 a huge eruption from Mount Etna in Sicily (the biggest volcano in Europe) threatened some villages. A lava flow running straight toward them was partially diverted by breaking and obstructing its channel with concrete blocks dropped from helicopters. Once the crust was broken, the lava expanded into a new artificial channel, was exposed to air, cooled faster and slowed down. The village was saved. More info here (PDF, in Italian).
Don't know where the link was supposed to go, but some (not really new) information can be found here, along with a nice section of Mars North Polar Cap obtained with the remarkable Italian MARSIS instrument. Nice to see another world studied by geologists with just the same techniques used here on Earth.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's hope they will agree on non-intersecating orbits for Gaia and JWST.
Gaia team: Hey! We were here first!
JWST team: "Here"? You are oscillating all around the place!
Gaia team: Ours is an elegant Lissajous orbit. What is yours?
JWST team: We'll pwn the L2 point itself!
Gaia team: No way! Our probe will intersect it in 13 days.
JWST team: Metric days or imperial days?
Gaia team: What do you mean? Days are days.
JWST team: Wait! Your probe steered!
Gaia team: We told you: it's a Lissa...
*CRASH!*
Actually, my comment was meant to be ironic. Not toward your unusual politeness, but toward the tones most commonly used here and on most forums ("fora"?). I totally agree with you about the need for some kindness in any constructive dialogue.
Ok, now I'm the one wandering offtopic...
"Found", indeed! I've had this gene for a lifetime!
Now you tell me! I didn't know about the plutonium "spark plug" need: the detailed instructions in the Tom Clancy novel didn't even mention it. That explains the flop of my last backyard test! Luckily I didn't throw away all that good plutonium...
Wouldn't be more honest to say "We have no clue when fusion energy will be practical. Maybe some fundamental research breakthrough will make it doable next year, maybe we need to struggle with the current approach for another thirty years. Please fund research" ?
Would everybody please stop answering questions with other questions?
Very true, and the outcome is not written yet. After one year, I don't see lots of Windows Media Photo format images around. The same can't be said about Windows Media Video, unfortunately.
For a moment, I hoped Intel had come out with something like AMD's rumored reverse-Hyperthreading. That would be a real revolution!
I'd say: if you are going to buy any software, it might be advisable to estimate how much its benefits are worth to you. If the price is higher than that, don't buy it. Vista probably makes sense for someone who "needs" DX10 (debatable, in my opinion) or a versioning filesystem, but hardly for millions of computer users.
[Call to Dell sales support follows]
-Dell? You totally botched up my order! I wanted Damn Small Linux 3 on my PC, not 3 fucking small PCs and a cup of sabayon!
What is the evil plan behind the acquisition of a huge icy moon weighting almost 18 millions billions tons? Easy. Move it in Earth orbit and threat your competitors to crush their headquarters with the power of millions of H bombs if they don't hand you ONE HUNDRED THOUSANDS BILIONS DOLLARS!!! MhuuahahahAHAH!!!
At least, the color-blind human eye. I think the saturated/desaturated pattern you (seem to) describe, if made big enough to be detectable by a crap phone camera, would be as much visible as the one described in the article.
Assuming they didn't do it on purpose, you must admit that it's not easy to imagine where to trace the line between "innocuous prank" and "terror act" in our times. You always end up underestimating stupidity. Don't know if the same stunt would have caused the same level of alarm in an European city. I suspect not, but you can guess we (our governments and mass media) are doing our best to reach the USA in this game of "scare the masses".
Even counting total emission per country (as opposed to per capita), the same source shows USA to be the biggest CO2 producer, with 23.8% of world total, as compared to 14.6% for China. Of course, the data are from 1997, when the Kyoto Treaty was written. I expect the chinese quota of CO2 to have grown more than the american one since then. But an important aspect of the Treaty is that it allows for higher emission levels for developing countries, as long as they fall into this cathegory. When a country has grown out of third world, it is obliged by the same standards as other developed countries.
Anyway, all of this is purely academic. It is too late for Kyoto compliance to make a difference. Due to long years of inaction not only by the USA, but surely encouraged by them (I don't care to pinpoint what administration is more at fault), now the situation asks for way more drastic actions to be taken.
I still have hope. Maybe California is showing the way you can reshape your industries while making profits in new ways, and America can return to be seen as a leader instead of a deadweight.
This moment could be remebered as "The day the biggest CO2 producer nation in the world acknowledged a reality it ignored for years". Let's hope it's not too late to prevent irreversible runaway effects. For what it's worth, one day or another I'd like to hear some contrite words from people who stubbornly denied the need for any action about Global Warming up to now. A bit late, a bit useless, but should be an obligation for someone who may have contributed to bring the world beyond a point of no return.
A previous experience in Italy shows that something can be done even against lava flows, not just slow mud eruptions. If not at the volcano emission site, at least in the "tubes" that keep lava hot and allow it to travel very far semi-buried under its own crust.
In 1992 a huge eruption from Mount Etna in Sicily (the biggest volcano in Europe) threatened some villages. A lava flow running straight toward them was partially diverted by breaking and obstructing its channel with concrete blocks dropped from helicopters. Once the crust was broken, the lava expanded into a new artificial channel, was exposed to air, cooled faster and slowed down. The village was saved. More info here (PDF, in Italian).
Don't know how to tell you... but decorative lights are meant to flicker!
The ads told me to... Must... obey...
Oooh! Shiny!
Don't know where the link was supposed to go, but some (not really new) information can be found here, along with a nice section of Mars North Polar Cap obtained with the remarkable Italian MARSIS instrument. Nice to see another world studied by geologists with just the same techniques used here on Earth.