Hertz! Yes, of course. (Sorry, I deal everyday in kHz and my fingers are programmed to type it.)
The listed frequencies of 7.8, 13.8 etc Hz are only averages. The resonant frequency varies with time and place according to the height of the ionosphere at that location and time of day and season, as well as along the radio path to the location of the dominant lightning energy sources. During the day the bottom of the ionosphere (D-region at ELF) is 60 km and during the night closer to 90 km. This forms the upper boundary of the earth-ionosphere waveguide alluded to in the original article. So, in practice, the "resonance" is broad, being the sum of all contributing resonances (I have listened to it) and is not a pure, single frequency as one might imagine.
Yes, TFA is not helpful. Use of the phrase "a radio wave" implies a monochromatic emission, perhaps even a coherent emission. On earth, the Schumann resonance emissions (caused by the sum total of radio energy from lightning strikes) is a broad peak in background radio emissions around 8 kHz. But this peak is definitely not coherent, nor on a single frequency, nor even narrow-band. Whoever wrote the article clearly didn't understand the phenomenon they were trying to describe.
> That was one of the pressures to getting the Dec 2k6 flight off the ground.
"Dec 2k6"? Excuse me, but that would be Dec 2600 (2k6 = 2.6E3), quite a ways from now. I think I know what you meant, but that is not what you said.
Maxo-Texas wrote : "I think civ's do okay, never get off the planet the started on, and eventually die out from lack of resources, some kind of self destruction, or being wiped out by an external event."
In other words, become extinct.
So contrary to the article, there are really only two choices (not three) : colonize the galaxy, or become extinct.
How would I fix the patent system?
Stop inventing things.
Then I would require the teaching of "intelligent design" and "sound science" in all the schools and universities in the country. That would make sure it stayed fixed.
When I started using CSS (I'm still just a beginner), I stopped worrying about how any browser would render my pages. All my pages comply with W3C standards. (Although, as a beginner, I still use some deprecated HTML.) My layouts are all relatively simple and if the browser, any browser, can't render it reasonably well, then To Heck With Them. No more hacks. Maybe I am foolish and idealistic (or just plain stupid), but the browser wars are over for me. CSS, XHTML (transitional), and W3C forever.
And if they do allow cell phone (transmitter) use without causing interference to aircraft nav/comms, will they please then allow me to use my GPS (receiver)?
"... that every single atom in the reactor vessel..."
I thought the reaction was to be contained magnetically, therefore any surrounding vessel would not be "touched" by the neutron flux.
no opec nations getting in on this action?
OPEC? Hell, even Canada isn't involved! We were originally and I understood that some Canadian physicists were hoping that the facility would be built here. But thanks to our previous Liberal government, there was no "funding available" to even consider such a possibility. I doubt the province of Alberta (read "Big Oil") would have allowed it. Such is the state of scientific research and engineering in Canada today - all politics.
Wise decision. PC World is very USA-centric and Windows-centric. Only recently have they even faintly recognized that there are several very good anti-virus programs from Europe. Still, almost any mention of AV applications in PC World is limited to Norton and McAfee. They really don't know (or care?) what is going on in the rest of the world.
Or "Frame Shift" by Robert Sawyer, where a certain experiment at CERN causes the earth to shift slightly in the space-time continuum. An excellent story, well-researched and well-written. Err, sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned this at all because U.S. stores refuse to sell books by Canadian authors. At least I have never found a copy of a Canadian book in a U.S. bookstore. It is strange. Is it due to some black hole sucking up all the books we send across the border or just plain old xenophobia?
If I were a hacker (which I am not, though some days I might like to be), I would hack the RIAA website so that every few minutes any page there would flash the question on a viewer's screen "So how does it feeeeel?" I'm sure there are other, more worthwhile attacks too. But I'm not a hacker.
Not really. If you are far enough north that the amount of daylight is less than about 7 or 8 hours per day, then DST doesn't make any difference any more. Any gain of daylight early in the day is equally lost later in the day. And north of the Arctic Circle DST is totally irrelevant.
Exactly. A really stupid idea to follow the U.S. like some obedient sheep. I live in Ontario and I am ashamed of my provincial government. Besides, surely changes to something as fundamental to commerce and everyday life as Time Zones must be negotiated under the rules of NAFTA. Isn't that what NAFTA is all about?? So where is the consultation, the negotiation, the joint decision? Ah, well, we know what the U.S. government thinks about NAFTA and any rules imposed on the U.S. -- NAFTA rules are OK when imposed on Canada and Mexico but the U.S. is exempt from all of that!
Danger Stevens wrote : "Is it worthwhile to limit the advances of potentially destructive sciences like this one or is it an inevitability?"
The development of controlled-fusion engines is fundamentally different from the use of nuclear reactors fuelled with radioactive material. And my support of controlled-fusion predates the recent increase in gasoline prices by several decades. Oh, I know, Real Slash-dot readers don't drive cars anyway.
TEMPEST (all codewords are in block letters) protection isn't so hard. I'm typing this on an old Pentium 2 built by HP in a TEMPEST-protected case, model Kayak XA, bought on the surplus market. It's a standard plastic case with solid shielding on the inside, finger stock around the edges, metallic screening to allow passage of air, etc., all connected together at power line ground potential. Nothing fancy, just carefully assembled by HP or their subcontractor.
The case is a bit of a bugger to open and close but at least my computer doesn't interfere with my ham radio reception. Guess it must work:-)
Surely changes to something as commercially and technically significant as standard time zones have to be negotiated with partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Regardless of what the U.S. Congress might like to think, negotiations are required to avoid penalties under NAFTA sections concerning cross-border trade and information sharing.
No, approval is only required of the Governor General (who is usually a tad more Real than many MPs and senators), after the bill passes 3 readings in each of the House of Commons and the Senate. So there is lots of time and opportunity to fix this silly thing.
Not only all that but with magazine subscriptions the fine print is on the same little card where you check a box, fill in your address, and then send it all back to them. So unless you have deliberately kept a photocopy you no longer have the fine print.
Slashdot Mirror
Hertz! Yes, of course. (Sorry, I deal everyday in kHz and my fingers are programmed to type it.)
The listed frequencies of 7.8, 13.8 etc Hz are only averages. The resonant frequency varies with time and place according to the height of the ionosphere at that location and time of day and season, as well as along the radio path to the location of the dominant lightning energy sources. During the day the bottom of the ionosphere (D-region at ELF) is 60 km and during the night closer to 90 km. This forms the upper boundary of the earth-ionosphere waveguide alluded to in the original article. So, in practice, the "resonance" is broad, being the sum of all contributing resonances (I have listened to it) and is not a pure, single frequency as one might imagine.
Yes, TFA is not helpful. Use of the phrase "a radio wave" implies a monochromatic emission, perhaps even a coherent emission. On earth, the Schumann resonance emissions (caused by the sum total of radio energy from lightning strikes) is a broad peak in background radio emissions around 8 kHz. But this peak is definitely not coherent, nor on a single frequency, nor even narrow-band. Whoever wrote the article clearly didn't understand the phenomenon they were trying to describe.
> That was one of the pressures to getting the Dec 2k6 flight off the ground. "Dec 2k6"? Excuse me, but that would be Dec 2600 (2k6 = 2.6E3), quite a ways from now. I think I know what you meant, but that is not what you said.
Maxo-Texas wrote : "I think civ's do okay, never get off the planet the started on, and eventually die out from lack of resources, some kind of self destruction, or being wiped out by an external event."
In other words, become extinct.
So contrary to the article, there are really only two choices (not three) : colonize the galaxy, or become extinct.
How would I fix the patent system? Stop inventing things. Then I would require the teaching of "intelligent design" and "sound science" in all the schools and universities in the country. That would make sure it stayed fixed.
When I started using CSS (I'm still just a beginner), I stopped worrying about how any browser would render my pages. All my pages comply with W3C standards. (Although, as a beginner, I still use some deprecated HTML.) My layouts are all relatively simple and if the browser, any browser, can't render it reasonably well, then To Heck With Them. No more hacks. Maybe I am foolish and idealistic (or just plain stupid), but the browser wars are over for me. CSS, XHTML (transitional), and W3C forever.
And if they do allow cell phone (transmitter) use without causing interference to aircraft nav/comms, will they please then allow me to use my GPS (receiver)?
"... that every single atom in the reactor vessel ..."
I thought the reaction was to be contained magnetically, therefore any surrounding vessel would not be "touched" by the neutron flux.
no opec nations getting in on this action? OPEC? Hell, even Canada isn't involved! We were originally and I understood that some Canadian physicists were hoping that the facility would be built here. But thanks to our previous Liberal government, there was no "funding available" to even consider such a possibility. I doubt the province of Alberta (read "Big Oil") would have allowed it. Such is the state of scientific research and engineering in Canada today - all politics.
> I gave up on PC World back in about 1993.
Wise decision. PC World is very USA-centric and Windows-centric. Only recently have they even faintly recognized that there are several very good anti-virus programs from Europe. Still, almost any mention of AV applications in PC World is limited to Norton and McAfee. They really don't know (or care?) what is going on in the rest of the world.
Or "Frame Shift" by Robert Sawyer, where a certain experiment at CERN causes the earth to shift slightly in the space-time continuum. An excellent story, well-researched and well-written. Err, sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned this at all because U.S. stores refuse to sell books by Canadian authors. At least I have never found a copy of a Canadian book in a U.S. bookstore. It is strange. Is it due to some black hole sucking up all the books we send across the border or just plain old xenophobia?
Several wineries? Actually, dozens of them!
If I were a hacker (which I am not, though some days I might like to be), I would hack the RIAA website so that every few minutes any page there would flash the question on a viewer's screen "So how does it feeeeel?" I'm sure there are other, more worthwhile attacks too. But I'm not a hacker.
Not really. If you are far enough north that the amount of daylight is less than about 7 or 8 hours per day, then DST doesn't make any difference any more. Any gain of daylight early in the day is equally lost later in the day. And north of the Arctic Circle DST is totally irrelevant.
Exactly. A really stupid idea to follow the U.S. like some obedient sheep. I live in Ontario and I am ashamed of my provincial government. Besides, surely changes to something as fundamental to commerce and everyday life as Time Zones must be negotiated under the rules of NAFTA. Isn't that what NAFTA is all about?? So where is the consultation, the negotiation, the joint decision? Ah, well, we know what the U.S. government thinks about NAFTA and any rules imposed on the U.S. -- NAFTA rules are OK when imposed on Canada and Mexico but the U.S. is exempt from all of that!
Danger Stevens wrote :
"Is it worthwhile to limit the advances of potentially destructive sciences like this one or is it an inevitability?"
The development of controlled-fusion engines is fundamentally different from the use of nuclear reactors fuelled with radioactive material. And my support of controlled-fusion predates the recent increase in gasoline prices by several decades. Oh, I know, Real Slash-dot readers don't drive cars anyway.
TEMPEST (all codewords are in block letters) protection isn't so hard. I'm typing this on an old Pentium 2 built by HP in a TEMPEST-protected case, model Kayak XA, bought on the surplus market. It's a standard plastic case with solid shielding on the inside, finger stock around the edges, metallic screening to allow passage of air, etc., all connected together at power line ground potential. Nothing fancy, just carefully assembled by HP or their subcontractor.
:-)
The case is a bit of a bugger to open and close but at least my computer doesn't interfere with my ham radio reception. Guess it must work
Please, what does "PHP" stand for? Thanks.
Surely changes to something as commercially and technically significant as standard time zones have to be negotiated with partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Regardless of what the U.S. Congress might like to think, negotiations are required to avoid penalties under NAFTA sections concerning cross-border trade and information sharing.
No, approval is only required of the Governor General (who is usually a tad more Real than many MPs and senators), after the bill passes 3 readings in each of the House of Commons and the Senate. So there is lots of time and opportunity to fix this silly thing.
Not only all that but with magazine subscriptions the fine print is on the same little card where you check a box, fill in your address, and then send it all back to them. So unless you have deliberately kept a photocopy you no longer have the fine print.
"Belt bulkling"? - I like that.
I have this image in my head of some 'belt bulkler' eating a meal. No wonder he has no time to read a magazine!
Ah, come on. Psychology is not a real science, so how can psychological research be generalized to science and scientists in general??